Product Description
In this New York Times bestseller, authors Singer and Avery present the compelling concept that global temperatures have been rising mostly or entirely because of a natural cycle. Using historic data from two millennia of recorded history combined with natural physical records, the authors argue that the 1,500 year solar-driven cycle that has always controlled the earth's climate remains the driving force in the current warming trend.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 188 reviews)

appears scientific but is one-sided and misleading by Barry A. Klinger

2 Stars
October 14, 2009
This is a provocative and interesting, but ultimately misleading book. It is good for students and professionals in climate-related sciences who want to test their own knowledge of some of the technical controversies within the subject of anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming (AGW). It is a bad book for those who don't have the time or expertise to check the authors' claims by reading the scientific literature, because it gives the incorrect impression that straightforward scientific arguments disprove all evidence that humans are causing the Earth to warm. The book's main problem is how one-sided it is. Whenever there is a choice between long-standing bodies of knowledge and unproved hypotheses created specifically to contest global warming, you can tell in advance which way the book will argue. The book concentrates on a handful of objections to AGW while ignoring other evidence for AGW or scientific problems with anti-AGW claims. I'll give examples below. It insinuates that scientists are letting their supposedly green politics dictate their evidence for AGW. But Singer, Avery, and some others who argue against global warming are not themselves impartial--their other writings and associations imply they are advancing their own political agendas in favor of unfettered technology. People who really want to think about these issues should also look at the RealClimate website, the comprehensive IPCC report by scientists (available on line), and some of ther other books available such as Houghton. However, it may be comforting to some to believe that the IPCC, heavily-reviewed and comprehensively citing all relevant research, is a more biased source than the work of an activist scientist and an activist agricultural economist. Unstoppable Global Warming also suffers from poor organization. Evidence is brought up briefly several times before being discussed in greater detail. The chapter on climate models is mostly not about models but about temperature observations. Chapters alternate between the scientific basis of global warming and "baseless fears" about its consequences. It would have been more logical to give the whole argument against global warming and then talk about the consequences. I suspect the book's scattered structure is a rhetorical device in which the reader can be assaulted with doubt about every single aspect of global warming. There is genuine uncertainty about possible global warming consequences such as stronger hurricanes, water shortages in China and the southeastern US, and flooding due to sea level rise. But Singer and Avery uniformly minimize any difficulties society may have from AGW and exaggerate the difficulty of reducing AGW. Bangladesh is sinking into the sea? No problem, build a really, really, big dike! Develop solar power more? Oh no, we'll all have to live in caves! A Few Examples of Technical Gaps and Inconsistencies Observations show that the Earth's mean surface temperature has risen by .7 to .9 C since the late 1970s (see Figure 3.1, chapter 3, Contribution of Working Group 1 to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC; available online). Unstoppable Global Warming instead shows a plot of satellite data from John Christy showing a smaller trend in the lower troposphere. Singer and Avery don't give a source for this data, and they don't mention other relevant papers, including Mears and Wentz (2005 in the journal Science) which argues that Christy et al (2003, Journal of Atmospheric and Ocean Technology) underestimate the trend implied by the satellite data. Singer and Avery think that the apparent surface warming trend is too high because it was not properly corrected for increases in the "urban heat island effect". However, this warming is apparent in ocean temperature as well (IPCC chapter 3)--no cities at sea! Interestingly, the book's discussion on this topic occurs in a chapter about how bad numerical models are, but it's key reference (Kalnay and Cai, 2003, Nature) uses a model to calculate surface temperature. The book does not mention observed stratospheric cooling, which is consistent with the hypothesis of global warming and not with theories based on natural solar variations. The discussion of GCM's, or General Circulation Models ("Global Circulation Models" in the book) is extremely superficial. The book innacurately faults GCM' for not being able to reproduce past climates, but neglects the numerous features of the observed 20th century climate that models do reproduce (see Chapters 8 and 9 of the IPCC report, especially Fig 9.12). In a typical inconsistency, Singer and Avery do trust such GCM's which indicate (probably correctly) that an ice age like in "The Day AFter Tomorrow" is unlikely, because in that case the GCM agrees with the point they want to make. All of the book's major scientific points have similar problems. Large natural climate variations before the twentieth century? Cosmic rays driving changes in climate? Changes in high-level clouds counteracting greenhouse gases? These are all easy to accept if you ignore papers with contrary evidence and have already concluded that AGW doesn't exist.

Excellent Overview by Boyd H. Blackwell (Canton, OH)

5 Stars
August 31, 2009
This book is an excellent review of climate science. It focuses on the real science and how the patterns were discovered which led to its conclusion that global warming is a natural event, and not something caused by man. Many footnotes of sources of information to check on the information being presented. No hysterical claims to get people excited, but solid scientific research used to reach conclusions.

An Alternative Theory by Patrick Shepherd (San Jose, CA USA)

4 Stars
August 25, 2009
The media drumbeat of human-caused global warming causing great potential damage continues unabated, along with editorial demands that something be done right now to curb CO2 emissions. Contrary views are given little attention; after all, newspapers and network news shows are in the business of selling information, and if it's not sensational they can't sell as much. But contrary views do exist, and this book does a very good job of presenting not only an alternative theory to explain current temperature variations, but backs it up with hard data gained from a very large number of sources, all of which are carefully documented in bibliographies at the end of each article. The prime theory advanced in this book is that most of what we are currently observing is due to a 1500 year variation in the sun's output. In support of this theory they present data from ice cores, tree rings, sea-floor sedimentation analysis, written histories, satellite measurements, archeological interpretations of early human habitats, and a host of other data points, some of it stretching back a million years, and tracking what they believe to be at least 600 cycles of this 1500 year variation. At the same time they raise doubts about some of the data that has been used to support the human-caused global warming theory, showing the flaws that produced the famous `hockey stick' graph, indicating that many ground-based measurements have been influenced by the heat-island effect of cities that has not been fully discounted by current modeling techniques, bringing to the fore current measurements that do not fit the man-made theory model, and showing that current computer models do not (and probably cannot) take all factors into consideration nor do their predictive results match the real world when `back-tested' on historical data. They also examine the `scare' headlines of large sea-level rises, more and more violent storms, species extinction, and famines, plagues, and wars caused by great droughts. They conclude that none of these are likely even if current temperatures continue to rise to the level last seen around 900 AD, showing that these warm portions of the cycle have less, not more, violent storms, larger areas where farming can be productive, more, not less, biodiversity during such warm periods, etc. There are a few places where I think they have gone a little overboard, such as where they practically accuse some scientists of deliberately falsifying data to fit the man-made theory (though they do support some of the published political papers having been 'edited'), and there is a general adversarial tone to this book that perhaps shouldn't be there. Also, many of the points they raise are repeated multiple times throughout this book, which becomes a little wearisome, and I would have liked to see a little more detailed explanation of how the known 87 and 210 year cycles in the sun's output end up producing the 1500 year temperature cycle. But these are comparative quibbles to the prime points that this book presents, that CO2 emissions may not be the prime driver of the current warming trend and the effects of such warming will not be either immediately or totally disastrous, while for the world economies to actually implement severe curtailment strategies to limit CO2 emissions would almost certainly cause great hardship and economic distress around the globe. --- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

Great Scientific Climate Analysis with Strong Data by Christopher S. Peele (San Diego, CA United States)

5 Stars
August 16, 2009
If you're looking for a book that stimulates your mind with many sources of data used to present the 'other side' of the global warming debate...you've found it here. Not only do the authors present geological data beginning about 400,000 years ago in Iceland, and 250,000 years ago in Greenland, to reveal the commonly known longer 'ice age' meteorology cycles of about 90,000 to 100,000 years, but give the reader a glimpse of the 'cycles within cycles' that range from 1500 years in length (plus or minus 500 years) to the cycles that are 87 years and 210 years in duration. What makes their 'solar centered' argument so compelling is that it is also very logical...doesn't it make sense that our planet's heat source (the sun) is primarily responsible for the warming and cooling cycles of our entire solar system? From a variety of geological sources worldwide, you will learn the scientific reasons why the hysterical claims from the 'global warming' alarmists are illogical and baseless at best, and why the inevitable cycles of cooling are far more dangerous for mankind than warmer periods.

Required reading by W. Dague

5 Stars
July 04, 2009
This book should be required reading for every member of Congress. It goes to great scientific lengths to show that yes, the science is settled, and if, in fact there is global warming, it is an unstoppable process that has been going on for many thousands of years, and most definitely is not caused by greenhouse gas emissions.Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years, Updated and Expanded Edition

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