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  • False Alarm

  • How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet
  • Written by: Bjorn Lomborg
  • Narrated by: Jim Seybert
  • Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (150 ratings)

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False Alarm

Written by: Bjorn Lomborg
Narrated by: Jim Seybert
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Publisher's Summary

The New York Times best-selling "skeptical environmentalist" argues that panic over climate change is causing more harm than good

Hurricanes batter our coasts. Wildfires rage across the American West. Glaciers collapse in the Artic. Politicians, activists, and the media espouse a common message: climate change is destroying the planet, and we must take drastic action immediately to stop it. Children panic about their future, and adults wonder if it is even ethical to bring new life into the world. 

Enough, argues best-selling author Bjorn Lomborg. Climate change is real, but it's not the apocalyptic threat that we've been told it is. Projections of Earth's imminent demise are based on bad science and even worse economics. In panic, world leaders have committed to wildly expensive but largely ineffective policies that hamper growth and crowd out more pressing investments in human capital, from immunization to education. 

False Alarm will convince you that everything you think about climate change is wrong - and points the way toward making the world a vastly better, if slightly warmer, place for us all. 

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.  

©2020 Bjorn Lomborg (P)2020 Hachette Audio

What the critics say

"Bjorn Lomborg is that rare thing: a clear-sighted realist about climate change. In False Alarm, he argues that it would be foolish to do nothing to prepare for a warmer planet, but it would be more foolish to pretend that we are doing things that will significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions when we are not. At the same time, getting serious about cutting CO2 emissions will have a cost. As Lomborg says, vastly more people die as a consequence of poverty and disease each year than die as a consequence of global warming. As in the past, we humans are capable of adapting to climate change in ways that can significantly mitigate its adverse effects, without choking off economic growth. To learn how, you must read False Alarm." (Niall Ferguson, the Hoover Institution, Stanford University)

"Bjorn Lomborg's new book offers a data-driven, human-centered antidote to the oft-apocalyptic discussion characterizing the effect of human activity on the global climate. Careful, compelling, and above all sensible and pragmatic." (Jordan Peterson, author of 12 Rules for Life)

"[Lomborg] follows his previous critiques of climate change policy...with a hard-hitting analysis of failing strategies for addressing what he acknowledges is 'a real problem.'...A serious, debatable assessment of a controversial global issue." (Kirkus)

What listeners say about False Alarm

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Ideologically balanced

While the author has a balanced view I found himself to be quite contradictory. ie. carbon taxes are good but, says taking opportunity and money from people is bad. Then says that controlling human emissions won't do much to control global warming but should do it anyway.

I did like the stats put out showing that keeping people from poverty will do more for the environment. Just like it has done in first world countries.

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Let's help humanity by using our heads

As an audio book it suffers from lack of visual support. But informative anyway. Thanks.

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very thought provoking

really compelled by the authors arguments on our ineffective modern approaches to climate change and enjoyed his alternative solutions and positivity for the future. His arguments mainly surrounded helping the future of humanity which I appreciate but I would have liked to hear more arguments as to how his ideas will help preserve our forests and global biodiversity.

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Why is there no proper discussion

Finally an approach to a topic that is sensitive and guided by the outcry for a scientifically based work on solutions that make sense to me. Well written.

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Well informed, research based

Definitely a heavy read / listen with lots of data, numbers, and even graphs. But it is so good to hear someone speaking out of well-informed research about the climate. Would have liked to hear Bjorn narrate.

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Enlightening

This book is by far one of the most eye opening books I ha e ever read. his arguments are well crafted, sophisticated yet simple. it builds on and corre to the things we know are hypocritical in the green catastrophe. it makes sense and offers hope above all the overwhelming negative messages from the politically motivated idealists.

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Needed info for future generations

Needed info as the media has hyped the effects of climate change. The end is NOT neigh

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exceptional!

this is a must read by all that consider climate change to be a top five issue. Bjorn Lomborg lays out a thorough case for the abandonment of climate alarmism driven policies for climate realistic policies.

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A must read!

This enlightening book is perhaps one of the most important books to promote in a world full of Trudeaus, Obamas, Schwabs and other like-minded people hell bent on destroying our world out of pure ignorance and/or out of narcissistic compulsion.

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Such scientific info

This should be compulsory reading for all the world leaders who are shoving CO2 reduction down our gullets…. Not to mention compulsory reading for everyone else!
How can you dispute this info from Nobel climate economists along with all other climate scientists?
Bjorn Lomberg presents a very compelling compilation of facts to consider in this whole global warming 'crisis'.
This was an excellent read! I heartily recommend you get educated!

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  • Wayne
  • 2020-07-16

Stop climate change panic!

I've been a fan of Danish author Bjørn Lomborg since he released The Skeptical Environmentalist in 2001. FALSE ALARM is the latest in his series of books on environmental topics. His two part message is (1) the earth's atmosphere is warming due to the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide and (2) we must deal with it without alarmism. He makes the scientific case that the Paris Climate Accords would have almost no effect even if every country meets its CO2 reduction targets. Likewise he makes the case that that panic is unjustified and counterproductive. Lomborg goes into great detail of his multifaceted plan to deal with the effects of global warming.

Lomborg is not a climate change denier. It is refreshing to have an expert like Lomborg agreeing that global warming caused by CO2 is real and offering real world solutions to the problem. He also demonstrates using IPCC data that the solutions preferred by world governments will not resolve the problem butt will cause horrid economic issues especially for all but the richest countries.

False Alarm should be required reading in high schools worldwide.

The English edition of this book uses Fahrenheit rather than Centigrade temperatures for his American audience.

I very, very strongly recommend False Alarm for everyone. It is a very important book.

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  • Lisa M. Seuferer
  • 2020-07-25

Everyone should read this!

Finally, a rational, explicit, factual examination of the climate problem without denying that it is a problem but also without panicked exaggeration! This topic is so heated, so politically divisive that it seems we will never come to an agreement that will protect the environment and those of us who live within it. THIS, THIS, THIS book contains the answers, the compromise, the science that (ought to) bring all of us together. Regardless of what your personal political view, the science here is undeniable. You will hear things that make you uncomfortable - facts always do - but you will hear far more that gives you optimism! There are valuable things each of us can do, right now, TODAY, without costing a fortune or forcing us to give up our creature comforts. READ THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW!

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  • Mountain K9iner
  • 2020-08-07

Should be required reading

in every high school and college econ and environmental science course. Common sensical risk analysis without hype or political parrtisanship.

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  • Nicholas W. Pecone
  • 2020-07-25

Valuable Information, Seemed Self-Contradictory At Times

I enjoyed the book and gleaned a lot of insight into what reality vs fiction are. The book should be a 5 for the data alone. Unfortunately Bjorn has the same problem Steve Pinker does. They both like to arbitrarily declare things problems right after they explain why it’s really not. Very frustrating

Nicky P
freemarketsgreenearth.com

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  • Paul Ellingson
  • 2020-08-05

An abosolute MUST READ!

Lomborg's review of current climate policies and news stories is enlightening. I have been very skeptical about the media's reporting of almost everything for the past decade related to the environment especially as I have seen them significantly misreport environmental water science, a field in which I am expert. So to have a well documented book (along with his book "Cool It") is a gift. Thank you Mr. Lomborg

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  • Anonymous User
  • 2020-07-27

Needed!

Very good book! it is good to understand that climate change is a middle ground problem. loved reading it !

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  • Daniel
  • 2020-07-24

Common sense is still right

Common sense to solve our problems is the right way to go. Not fun, not sellable in today crisis media, but the right thing to do.

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  • Harley
  • 2020-09-21

A balanced perspective on climate change.

A must read for both climate change deniers and green fanatics. The author reviews an encompassing perspective of climate and economic problems that the world faces which are backed by significant data and simultaneously offers sensible well thought out solutions

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  • B. Walker
  • 2020-09-15

sanity in the face of panic mongering

evaluative fact based ideas worth considering instead of throw the baby out with the bath water

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2020-09-02

Eye Opening!

I thought I knew a lot about how badly they skewed the members about climate change but never thought it was this bad. False Alarm was absolutely mind blowing...great read!

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  • Jon
  • 2020-12-27

Interesting

Very interesting book, there is obviously more to climate change debate than what makes it into the news... Lomborg will be dismissed as a lunatic by climate activists but for the normal person out there, this should be a must read. Nisbet and Lomborg had a recent debate that also helps weigh the arguments presented in this book.

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