Last week I watched “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. The guy with the dry humour and the sarcastic way of seeing things. He talked with Christopher Horner, the author of the book “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism”.

Honestly, book-titles containing the words “politically incorrect" (or "correct" for that matter) are a real turn off for me. I usually ignore them – let alone read them. They just tell you things everyone knows and talks about anyway – just not in such a direct (and therefore politically incorrect equal honest) way.
Having said that I was almost tempted to buy Christopher Horner’s book. The fact that someone against all scientific proof still thinks that climate change isn’t real and writes a 288 page long book about it (trying to sell it as truth), is so extraordinary that it demands some attention. What’s his point?
Horner tries to put the whole climate change debate under the label of a left wing conspiracy – a manipulation of environmental issues for political purposes – masking the fact that “catastrophic man-made global warming is just more Chicken-Little hysteria, not actual science.”So I looked it up on Amazon to order it for shipping to Germany. What I found was stunning and not at all what I expected: 66 reviews were listed about this book – an opinion poll of what people really think about the topic. From nonsense to relief that someone for once is brave enough to speak the truth. Some excerpts from the debate:

“Environmentalism is a religion. Its proponents behave the same way right wings evangelicals do when someone dares challenge their a-priori assumptions. Those who assume global warming is a fact react to scientific evidence to the contrary much the same way christian fundamentalists react to scientific evidence of evolution. I’m not sure which is more enlightening, this book, or the offence taken by those who accept the silly religious notion of man made global warming.”

The other side:

“As recently as just a few years ago, I was strongly against any sort of Kyoto-style restrictions on greenhouse gases, because I thought that the drag on the world's economies created by a Kyoto-style treaty would be greater than the economic damage caused by global warming itself.
I no longer believe that. While it is clear that reductions in greenhouse gases will create a drag on the economy, the long-term consequences of doing nothing are much more severe. This book does nothing but pooh-pooh those potential consequences.
There is at least a small possibility that global warming is not the threat that Al Gore, for instance, makes it out to be. I'll give this book five stars for being colourful. But what if Christopher Horner, the author of this book, is wrong? Does he have a Ph.D. in climate science? No, he does not. Is he infallible? Of course he isn't.
If he's right, then everything is fine.
But if--just if--he's wrong, your grandchildren will know about it. And they will pay the price of our inaction. “

Since we are a democracy, everyone is allowed to believe in whatever he likes – whether reasonable or not. I like the attitude of the last fellow. That’s why, in the end, I didn’t buy the book: just the shipping would have done more damage to the environment than I could possibly pay off with the price for the book. I know, Mr. Horner, this is totally against your point that climate change is not manmade – but maybe this is all just a strategy to sell your book?