Monday 1 December 2008

Barclays Wealth
 

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Michael Henderson

Michael Henderson suggests


Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming

Too much zeal

Christopher Booker and Richard North
Continuum, pp. 494pp, ££16.99,
Graham Stewart
Wednesday, 2nd January 2008

Many of us are beginning to weary of the pushier sort of ‘expert’. Gone is the sense of proportion, the admission of scientific doubt, the ability to weigh risks against benefits. Taking seriously a year’s worth of their health warnings would give anyone an eating disorder.

It hardly builds confidence when so much of the advice directly contradicts whatever was confidently pronounced beneficial only months previously. The natural reaction is to take it all with a pinch of salt (if that is still allowed) and assume that the hasty appearance of a government minister on the one o’ clock news to endorse the latest findings is an early indication that they will transpire to be nonsense.

Spectator Book Club

Subscribe now

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Comments

Post a comment


Your comment:*

Your name:*

Your email address:*
(We won't publish this)

*Required information

Please click the button only once - your comment will not be published immediately

Philip Calcott

January 4th, 2008 12:13pm

A fair enough article until the author gets to global warming. Here he just illustrates his ignorance of the climate physics involved. The evidence that a step change up in CO2 levels will have a dramatic effect on climate is overwhelming, as is the evidence that this is already happening. To ingore this and counsel a "wait and see" approach is shear irresponsiblity.

EyeSee

January 4th, 2008 1:26pm

Excellent topic and so true. We have become conditioned, particularly by the Labour nanny-state ideal not to think for ourselves, so scams like these get through. Now I don't want to do the conspiracy thing, but I found the 'buy it at Amazon' bit amusing. It isn't in stock and hasn't been for at least a while, if not since release. Nor at Play.com, why is that? Nor, incidently is Norman Baker's book about the murder of Dr Kelly.

David Owen

January 4th, 2008 1:52pm

Philip Calcott's badly spelt comment seemed to miss the point as much as he accuses the article's author of doing. Seems to me they were not trying to argue the 'climate physics involved'. Does Mr Calcutt fully understand these ? Does anyone, given the degree of disagreement shown by different 'experts' in the field. Even if one accepts 'a step change in CO2 levels', it still seems perfectly reasonable to doubt whether this is entirely due to man-made activity, and even if it is, is there any way at all of reversing this trend ?

jud kirk

January 4th, 2008 2:07pm

I need to be enlightened as I have not found this overwhelming evidence. Perhaps Mr Calcott can direct me to this evidence?. I would also like to see where this "wait and see" approach is, because prior to the global warming hysteria plenty was being done to reduce energy consumption, primarily driven by economics but that doesn't provide stories for the media

Alex Hutchinson

January 4th, 2008 5:25pm

Perhaps the greatest threat from the scares surrounding BSE, salmonella et al is that just as with the boy who cried wolf, they lull us into a false sense of security when faced with a real threat with severe real consequences. Climate change may be that real threat, and even if it isn't, surely it makes good sense economically and on grounds of national security to reduce demand for imported energy and our dependency on regimes such as those of Mr Putin and Mr Ahmadinejad who supply it.

ian skidmore

January 4th, 2008 6:10pm

You do a valuable public service in publicising this book. I make a point of eating more of anything the government warns me against. Not trusted them since the "carrot and the ability to see at night" scandal of wartime years when I ate a mouintain of carrtots Red Rum couldn't have jumped over,went out into the black out and walked im to a wall. I was 12 at the time but sixty seven years later I haven't forgotten or forgiven

Leonard Colquhoun

January 5th, 2008 6:29am

The "gullibility of the media" is surely linked to the (perceived) almost total ignorance of journos and celebs of science; indeed, isn't is trendy now to boast of this ? And with tabloids, and even self-styled "quality" media, publishing and/or broadcasting astrological nonsense as if fact, what can be hoped for ?

Clint Lichtner

January 8th, 2008 3:27pm

Where is this book "Too Much Zeal" available? A search of the ISBN returns nothing as well. Is it so recently published that it's not yet distributed?

The Spectator Parliamentarian Awards
Spectator Book Club
The Spectator Billabong
Related articles

The power of the evasive word

Michael Howard

The Economist Book of Obituaries, by Keith Colquhoun and Ann Wroe

Deadlier than the male

Andrew Taylor

When does a novel stop being a novel and become a crime story? It’s often assumed that there is an unbridgeable gap between them, but that’s not necessarily so.

Not just Hitler

Edward Harrison

The Third Reich at War, 1939-1945, by Richard L. Evans

The done thing

Margaret MacMillan

The Politics of Official Apologies, by Melissa Nobles

Highs and lows on the laughometer

Bevis Hillier

Just What I Always Wanted: Unwrapping the World’s Most Curious Presents, by Robin Laurance

Spectator recommends

Free Sky Digital Offer - Order Now

Subscribe to Sky from £16 a month. Get free equipment and free broadband - Join Now. Sky HD - be...


Spectator classifieds

ROME CENTRE

PORTA METRONIA, ROME Standing high on the top of one of the seven hills of Rome- the Coelian- this unique

City Breaks. ROME and PARIS

ROME and PARIS: over 350 holiday rentals apartments listed: visit  www.romanreference.com  and  www.parisreference.com or call +39 0648 903612.

Jewellery. RUFFS (Estd. 1904).

Goldsmiths by Design Welcome to Ruffs!  You have found a company of Goldsmiths that specialises in the manufacture, amongst other