AN APPEAL TO REASON: A COOL LOOK AT GLOBAL WARMING

Book ID/图书代码： 04300008B20853

English Summary/英文概要： In the 1960s we were warned that the population explosion would lead to mass global starvation. In the 1970s we were warned that the planet was running out of natural resources and that world economic growth would grind to a halt within our lifetimes. When the planet’s temperature, which had been gently rising for some 400 years, appeared to be falling again, scientists warned us that we were facing the disaster of a new ice age. In the past year, sensational warnings about climate change have dominated the headlines as we are told that global warming will have disastrous consequences in the very near future unless we take drastic measures now.

In this cautious and reasoned treatise on an issue that effects each and every one of us, former Energy Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Margaret Thatcher government years, Nigel Lawson, argues that it is time to take a cooler look at global warming. Lawson, father of famed cookbook author, looks at the facts behind the headlines and explains that science is only part of the story. For governments to make informed decisions about the path ahead they must listen to economists as well as scientists, utilizing economic forecasting to assess the likely evolution of the world economy, and even more urgently, economic analysis: what is the most cost-effective way of tackling this issue? We also need an understanding of exactly what measures are politically realistic on a global scale.

At a time when politicians and the media are stirring up public and political hysteria on the subject of climate change, Lawson has written a timely disquisition urging us to take into account all the facts in order to deal with the threat of global warming.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 全球暖化是否已成為政治家和媒體用來宣傳自己的手段？！

20世紀60年代我們便得到過警告：全球人口膨脹必定會導致世界範圍的饑荒；20世紀70年代則出現另一個危機：全球自然資源正面臨枯竭，經濟增長也會慢慢停止。當全球溫度400年來慢慢的不斷增長，但似乎又在逐漸回落時，科學家們警示：也許我們會面臨另一個冰河時代。在過去幾年間，氣候變遷和全球變暖一直佔據頭條地位，如果我們不採取有力措施，在不久的將來，這將會不可逆轉的影響我們的生存。
在本書中，柴契爾時期前能源部長兼英國財政大臣奈傑爾·勞森提出，是時候以更為冷靜的觀點來看待全球暖化的問題，勞森是著名食譜作者之父，他把那些報紙頭條所報導的內容當做是一個故事來看。而政府在做知情報告之前，應該聽取經濟學者諸如科學家，利用經濟預測來評估世界經濟的演變，甚至於經濟分析：什麼才是最好的處理決策。我們同時也應當體諒基於全局下的政治管理措施。在這個政客和媒體不斷煽動民眾和黨派對於氣候變遷過激反映的年代，勞森的這本及時的著作將會指導我們正確的對待全球變暖。(ZH & VL)

Awards/获奖情况：‘On many points the sceptics happen to be correct. Nigel Lawson’s short, splendid book ... can leave no fair-minded reader in doubt on that score ... Elegantly written, thorough, entertaining and, above all, convincing’---The Financial Times

‘Clear, analytical and compelling: it has all the virtues of a book written by a very clever, very cross man’---The Economist

‘This is a fascinating tome, the best exposition of the sceptical view on global warming that I have yet to come across. It is comprehensive, packed with useful and clearly referenced facts and refreshingly free of the fanatical tone that plagues so many works on the subject’---Literary Review

‘Bombarded with the zealous certainties of those deaf to reasoned argument on the most important of issues, it is intensely refreshing to find in Nigel Lawson someone who, without claiming to have all the answers, is at least brave enough to ask eminently sensible questions’---The Spectator

‘Only one senior figure in Britain has dared stand apart from [the] stifling orthodoxy: Nigel Lawson’---The Telegraph

‘A valuable antidote to the sloppiness surrounding climate change’---The Mail on Sunday

‘I’m dismayed to discover that I agree with considerable amounts of what Lawson is saying’---The Sunday Times

‘This cogently-argued book has provoked the usual quasi-religious bile reserved for those who dare question the conventional wisdom on climate change’--- Evening Standard

‘It is important to keep testing the consensus view that has emerged in the past few years ... To this extent, Nigel Lawson’s short book is to be welcomed. Along with the polemics, he makes some sensible points’--- The Guardian

‘His insights are keen and refreshingly iconoclastic ... [His] contrarian synthesis of political thinking and economic analysis is notably well argued and well written - and sure to raise the hackles of those on the other side of the issue’---Publishers Weekly

‘It is a brave man who goes against the flow of current opinion and dares to question whether or not we can afford to pay for the implications of the Kyoto Treaty, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t worth listening to, especially now that we live in a rate of economic slowdown that would benefit from clearer policies and less rhetoric’---The Resident

‘This brief and elegant book treats the science of global warming seriously, but convincingly shows that whatever view one has of the science, almost all proposed approaches to the putative problem are intellectually deficient, economically absurd and harmful, and morally misdirected at best’---Richard S Lindzen, Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, MIT

Publishers of AN APPEAL TO REASON: UK (Duckworth), China (Social Sciences Academic Press), Czech Republic (Dokoran), Denmark (Herreværelset ApS), Italy (Francesco Brioschi Editore), Norway (Hegnar Media), Spain (Editorial Fundacion Faes), Spain (Catalan)(Editorial Fundacion Faes), Sweden (SNS Forlag).

About the Author/作者介绍： Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, PC (born 11 March 1932), is a British Conservative politician and journalist. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the constituency of Blaby from 1974-92, and served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the government of Margaret Thatcher from June 1983 to October 1989. He was made a life peer in 1992. Lawson is the father of the food writer Nigella Lawson and the journalist Dominic Lawson.
奈傑爾·勞森，1932年3月11日出生，英國保守派政黨及新聞人，他曾任下議院議員，1974-1992年間代表Blaby地區選民，並自1983年6月至1989年10月柴契爾時期任英國財政大臣，1992年被封為終身貴族。

Format:TRADE PAPERBACK

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE(到期可授)

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

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