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Announcements SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM EARTH DAY NETWORK: A skeptical look at The Skeptical Environmentalist, on line at Grist Magazine: http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/lomborg121201.asp You may have heard about a recently released book, "The Skeptical Environmentalist," in which Danish professor Bjorn Lomborg claims that global warming, deforestation, extinction, air pollution, energy shortages, food scarcity, and other environmental worries are "phantom problems" created or inflated by the environmental movement for its own ends. For example: "We will not lose our forests; we will not run out of energy, raw materials, or water... Our oceans have not been defiled, our rivers have become cleaner and support more life. ... Nor is waste a particularly big problem. ... The problem of the ozone layer has been more or less solved. The current outlook on the development of global warming does not indicate a catastrophe. ... And, finally, our chemical worries and fear of pesticides are misplaced and counterproductive." If you are thinking no one could take this seriously, guess again -- to date, mainstream media have mostly taken the book at face value and given it favorable play, with little or no critical analysis. A Washington Post reviewer raved about its "magnificent achievement"; the New York Times, the Economist, and others were equally gushing. Our staff at Grist (Earth Day Network's on-line environmental magazine) wondered how the book would hold up under more rigorous scrutiny, and asked respected scientists and leaders in their fields to address the allegations. The result is a special Grist issue on "The Skeptical Environmentalist" that is well worth a look. Some highlights: * EXTINCTION: Biologist E.O. Wilson -- two-time Pulitzer prize winner, discoverer of hundreds of new species, and one of the world's greatest living scientists -- debunks Lomborg's analysis of extinction rates. http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/wilson121201.asp * CLIMATE: Stephen H. Schneider, one of the foremost climate scientists in the United States, discredits Lomborg on global climate change and takes Cambridge University Press and the media to task for publishing and praising a polemic. http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/schneider121201.asp * SPECIES DIVERSITY: Norman Myers, an Honorary Visiting Fellow of Oxford University, a member of the U.S. National Academy of the Sciences, and a recipient of several of the world's most prestigious environmental awards, looks at Lomborg on biodiversity and concludes that he lacks even "a preliminary understanding of the science in question." http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/myers121201.asp * POPULATION: Lester R. Brown, founder of the Worldwatch Institute and the Earth Policy Institute, reviews Lomborg on population and concludes that his analysis is so "fundamentally flawed" that other professionals would do well to disassociate themselves from his work. http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/brown121201.asp * FORESTS: Emily Matthews, a forest expert and senior associate with the World Resources Institute, shows that Lomborg reaches wildly inaccurate conclusions about deforestation by fudging data or failing to interpret it correctly. http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/matthews121201.asp * ENERGY: Energy expert David Nemtzow, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, says Lomborg wastes his time battling a straw man: Virtually no one in the contemporary environmental movement disputes that fossil fuels are abundant, Nemtzow argues; in fact, it's precisely their abundance and their impact on our ecosystems that's the trouble. http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/nemtzow121201.asp * STATISTICS: Al Hammond, senior scientist at World Resources Institute, criticizes Lomborg for mischaracterizing the contemporary environmental movement and committing precisely the sins for which he attacks environmentalists: exaggeration, sweeping generalizations, the presentation of false choices, selective use of data, and outright errors of fact. http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/hammond121201.asp We hope this will be a useful resource for you. -Best Wishes from Earth Day Network.