Just what it says on the tin, 16 Sep 2008
This is a wonderful book. As the title suggests, it is cool, reasonable, and patient, looking carefully at all the evidence and coming to conclusions which it is hard to disagree with.

Like other reviewers, I find it hard to take excerpts from the book because I would have to quote the whole thing! However, perhaps I may try to help anyone who is wondering whether to read it. One way to look at the global warming/climate change debate is to ask oneself three questions.

First, is the world getting warmer?
Second, is human activity, and specifically CO2, a major cause?
And third, does it matter? Will there be harmful consequences? And if so, what should we do about them?

Much of the angry debate between believers and sceptics rages round the first two points. Lawson surveys the evidence on both, and comes to a conclusion. But what makes this book so powerful is its focus on the third question: whether a warmer world is one that will harm people, animals, plants, and our descendants. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) argues that it will. Lawson disagrees. He takes us through the IPCC scenarios, and their range of predictions relating to five potential impacts of a warmer world: on water, ecosystems, food, coasts, and health. In each case he demonstrates, with evidence, that a warmer world will either be neutral or even beneficial. What makes this evidence particularly persuasive is that much of it is drawn from the IPCC's own 4th report (2007)!.

It would be wrong to think of this book as complacent, a kind of 'I'm all right, Jack, pull up the ladder'. As Lawson points out, the single major cause of ill-health and death in the world is poverty, and if we take the standpoint of human welfare, the surest way to benefit humans is to lift them out of poverty. Lawson sees many serious problems facing the world, and many things that urgently need putting right. The view of this compelling and convincing book is that global warming isn't one of them.


A call for solid science to replace the hype and hysteria, 14 Sep 2008
A well written and thought provoking book that attempts to speak above the hysterical din that dominates the subject.

The author calls for a considered approach and appeals to organisations to address the issues we face in a sensible and practical way.



Lawson knows best apparently, 23 Aug 2008
The combined wisdom of the world's leading climate change scientists is clearly no match for Nigel Lawson. He alone is clear sighted enough to see these clever people are all wrong. Stop worrying you people on coastlands and islands as you watch the tide rising. Stop fussing about those droughts Africa and Australia! Trust Nigel, everything will be well because...er because he says so.

Thought-provoking contribution, 19 Aug 2008
In this thought-provoking book, Nigel Lawson asks key questions about global warming. Is the world warming and if so, why? How much warmer will it get? What will be the consequences? What can and should we do about it? What is the most cost-effective way to tackle it?

He looks at the temperature record. Surprisingly, temperatures have not risen since 2001, even though global CO2 emissions have been rising faster than ever. There was a 0.7oC rise over the last century while the CO2 in the atmosphere rose by 30%, largely caused by industrialisation driven by the rapid worldwide growth of carbon-based energy consumption (burning coal, oil and gas). Some, possibly most, of the warming is due to this growth of CO2 emissions and so of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report predicted a sea-level rise of between 18 and 59 centimetres by 2100. (Its 1990 report predicted a 3.67 metre rise.) The IPCC predicted a 1.8o-4oC temperature rise by 2100, a mean of less than 3oC. (At 3oC, it says, "Globally, the potential for food production is projected to increase.") 3oC is 0.03oC a year, compared to 1975-2000's 0.02oC a year.

The IPCC says the one `virtually certain' impact of global warming is `reduced human mortality from decreased cold exposure'. A 2003 Department of Health study confirmed this, predicting a decrease in cold-related mortality of 20,000 and an increase in heat-related mortality of 2,000 by the 2050s.

On the IPCC's worst case scenario, of 1% growth a year in the developed countries and 2.3% in the developing countries, global warming could cost us 5% of world GDP by 2100. This would make developed countries' GDP 2.6 times today's rather than 2.7 and developing countries' GDP 8.5 times today's rather than 9.5.

Lawson argues that we should drop the precautionary principle because it is wrong to take decisions on the basis of worst-case possibilities: probabilities, not possibilities, should be our guide.

He looks at the prospects of some specific disasters. He notes that Antarctic ice-sheets are growing, that the IPCC's 2007 report said that an `abrupt transition' of the Gulf Stream is `very unlikely' and that the World Meteorological Organization said of climate change's effects on hurricanes, "no firm conclusion can be made on this point."

The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme has increased profits for selected emitters and not cut emissions. Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism has done no better. The EU promotes growing biofuels, yet the Chinese government has suspended the production of the biofuel ethanol because it has raised food prices.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said that meeting the EU's agreed target of 20% of energy from renewables by 2020 would raise our electricity costs by £18-22 billion a year.

In June 2007 Merkel and Blair tried to get the G8 to agree to cut emissions by 50% by 2050. The rest rejected the idea. Six months later, Britain and Germany lost again when they proposed a mandatory global emissions cut of 25-40% by 2020.

We could control the world's temperature by severely limiting carbon dioxide emissions through raising prices of carbon-based energy, to make non-carbon-based energy more competitive. But this would force our energy-intensive industries out to China and other countries. (Although China's, and India's, emissions per head are still far less than the West's.) 1990s Russia showed that the only way to meet the Kyoto targets is to destroy your industries.

Lawson argues for an across-the-board carbon tax, even if it forces our remaining energy-intensive industries abroad, and for ending subsidies to all carbon-based energy. Instead, we need to keep our industries, se we need new carbon-based power stations and new gas storage facilities, which the market has not provided and will not provide.




Deluded amateur challenges the science, 12 Aug 2008
Lawson flies in the face of scientific consensus with no solid basis for his position. An unhelpful book.

Just what it says on the tin, 16 Sep 2008
This is a wonderful book. As the title suggests, it is cool, reasonable, and patient, looking carefully at all the evidence and coming to conclusions which it is hard to disagree with.

Like other reviewers, I find it hard to take excerpts from the book because I would have to quote the whole thing! However, perhaps I may try to help anyone who is wondering whether to read it. One way to look at the global warming/climate change debate is to ask oneself three questions.

First, is the world getting warmer?
Second, is human activity, and specifically CO2, a major cause?
And third, does it matter? Will there be harmful consequences? And if so, what should we do about them?

Much of the angry debate between believers and sceptics rages round the first two points. Lawson surveys the evidence on both, and comes to a conclusion. But what makes this book so powerful is its focus on the third question: whether a warmer world is one that will harm people, animals, plants, and our descendants. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) argues that it will. Lawson disagrees. He takes us through the IPCC scenarios, and their range of predictions relating to five potential impacts of a warmer world: on water, ecosystems, food, coasts, and health. In each case he demonstrates, with evidence, that a warmer world will either be neutral or even beneficial. What makes this evidence particularly persuasive is that much of it is drawn from the IPCC's own 4th report (2007)!.

It would be wrong to think of this book as complacent, a kind of 'I'm all right, Jack, pull up the ladder'. As Lawson points out, the single major cause of ill-health and death in the world is poverty, and if we take the standpoint of human welfare, the surest way to benefit humans is to lift them out of poverty. Lawson sees many serious problems facing the world, and many things that urgently need putting right. The view of this compelling and convincing book is that global warming isn't one of them.


A call for solid science to replace the hype and hysteria, 14 Sep 2008
A well written and thought provoking book that attempts to speak above the hysterical din that dominates the subject.

The author calls for a considered approach and appeals to organisations to address the issues we face in a sensible and practical way.



Lawson knows best apparently, 23 Aug 2008
The combined wisdom of the world's leading climate change scientists is clearly no match for Nigel Lawson. He alone is clear sighted enough to see these clever people are all wrong. Stop worrying you people on coastlands and islands as you watch the tide rising. Stop fussing about those droughts Africa and Australia! Trust Nigel, everything will be well because...er because he says so.

Thought-provoking contribution, 19 Aug 2008
In this thought-provoking book, Nigel Lawson asks key questions about global warming. Is the world warming and if so, why? How much warmer will it get? What will be the consequences? What can and should we do about it? What is the most cost-effective way to tackle it?

He looks at the temperature record. Surprisingly, temperatures have not risen since 2001, even though global CO2 emissions have been rising faster than ever. There was a 0.7oC rise over the last century while the CO2 in the atmosphere rose by 30%, largely caused by industrialisation driven by the rapid worldwide growth of carbon-based energy consumption (burning coal, oil and gas). Some, possibly most, of the warming is due to this growth of CO2 emissions and so of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report predicted a sea-level rise of between 18 and 59 centimetres by 2100. (Its 1990 report predicted a 3.67 metre rise.) The IPCC predicted a 1.8o-4oC temperature rise by 2100, a mean of less than 3oC. (At 3oC, it says, "Globally, the potential for food production is projected to increase.") 3oC is 0.03oC a year, compared to 1975-2000's 0.02oC a year.

The IPCC says the one `virtually certain' impact of global warming is `reduced human mortality from decreased cold exposure'. A 2003 Department of Health study confirmed this, predicting a decrease in cold-related mortality of 20,000 and an increase in heat-related mortality of 2,000 by the 2050s.

On the IPCC's worst case scenario, of 1% growth a year in the developed countries and 2.3% in the developing countries, global warming could cost us 5% of world GDP by 2100. This would make developed countries' GDP 2.6 times today's rather than 2.7 and developing countries' GDP 8.5 times today's rather than 9.5.

Lawson argues that we should drop the precautionary principle because it is wrong to take decisions on the basis of worst-case possibilities: probabilities, not possibilities, should be our guide.

He looks at the prospects of some specific disasters. He notes that Antarctic ice-sheets are growing, that the IPCC's 2007 report said that an `abrupt transition' of the Gulf Stream is `very unlikely' and that the World Meteorological Organization said of climate change's effects on hurricanes, "no firm conclusion can be made on this point."

The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme has increased profits for selected emitters and not cut emissions. Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism has done no better. The EU promotes growing biofuels, yet the Chinese government has suspended the production of the biofuel ethanol because it has raised food prices.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said that meeting the EU's agreed target of 20% of energy from renewables by 2020 would raise our electricity costs by £18-22 billion a year.

In June 2007 Merkel and Blair tried to get the G8 to agree to cut emissions by 50% by 2050. The rest rejected the idea. Six months later, Britain and Germany lost again when they proposed a mandatory global emissions cut of 25-40% by 2020.

We could control the world's temperature by severely limiting carbon dioxide emissions through raising prices of carbon-based energy, to make non-carbon-based energy more competitive. But this would force our energy-intensive industries out to China and other countries. (Although China's, and India's, emissions per head are still far less than the West's.) 1990s Russia showed that the only way to meet the Kyoto targets is to destroy your industries.

Lawson argues for an across-the-board carbon tax, even if it forces our remaining energy-intensive industries abroad, and for ending subsidies to all carbon-based energy. Instead, we need to keep our industries, se we need new carbon-based power stations and new gas storage facilities, which the market has not provided and will not provide.




Deluded amateur challenges the science, 12 Aug 2008
Lawson flies in the face of scientific consensus with no solid basis for his position. An unhelpful book.

Beautiful! Ideal for the the armchair cloudwatcher., 04 Sep 2008

This is a fantastic book and I was glad I bought it. The foreword is very informative and well written and doesn't boggle the reader with too much science. This book is ideal for those armchair cloud watchers who know a bit about clouds but need to further their knowledge. This book is an essential guide to cloud identification and provides some stunning photos of the clouds themselves. The book is also handy for being able to forecast the weather as you will soon get to know the cloud types and the associated weather that comes with them.



The sky's the limit, 27 May 2008
Recently I found a book that I could only dream of as a child, but which didn't seem to exist. Then I was fascinated by the weather and wanted a book classifying the cloud types with the correct names, symbols and pictures to demonstrate. Richard Hamblyn's "The Cloud Book" does all these things. The beauty of the photographs means it easily qualifies for the coffee tables of the less geeky among us, while neatly illustrating the text for the cloud afficianado. It is not often that you can say a book is perfect in all respects, but may be this is one.

Just what it says on the tin, 16 Sep 2008
This is a wonderful book. As the title suggests, it is cool, reasonable, and patient, looking carefully at all the evidence and coming to conclusions which it is hard to disagree with.

Like other reviewers, I find it hard to take excerpts from the book because I would have to quote the whole thing! However, perhaps I may try to help anyone who is wondering whether to read it. One way to look at the global warming/climate change debate is to ask oneself three questions.

First, is the world getting warmer?
Second, is human activity, and specifically CO2, a major cause?
And third, does it matter? Will there be harmful consequences? And if so, what should we do about them?

Much of the angry debate between believers and sceptics rages round the first two points. Lawson surveys the evidence on both, and comes to a conclusion. But what makes this book so powerful is its focus on the third question: whether a warmer world is one that will harm people, animals, plants, and our descendants. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) argues that it will. Lawson disagrees. He takes us through the IPCC scenarios, and their range of predictions relating to five potential impacts of a warmer world: on water, ecosystems, food, coasts, and health. In each case he demonstrates, with evidence, that a warmer world will either be neutral or even beneficial. What makes this evidence particularly persuasive is that much of it is drawn from the IPCC's own 4th report (2007)!.

It would be wrong to think of this book as complacent, a kind of 'I'm all right, Jack, pull up the ladder'. As Lawson points out, the single major cause of ill-health and death in the world is poverty, and if we take the standpoint of human welfare, the surest way to benefit humans is to lift them out of poverty. Lawson sees many serious problems facing the world, and many things that urgently need putting right. The view of this compelling and convincing book is that global warming isn't one of them.


A call for solid science to replace the hype and hysteria, 14 Sep 2008
A well written and thought provoking book that attempts to speak above the hysterical din that dominates the subject.

The author calls for a considered approach and appeals to organisations to address the issues we face in a sensible and practical way.



Lawson knows best apparently, 23 Aug 2008
The combined wisdom of the world's leading climate change scientists is clearly no match for Nigel Lawson. He alone is clear sighted enough to see these clever people are all wrong. Stop worrying you people on coastlands and islands as you watch the tide rising. Stop fussing about those droughts Africa and Australia! Trust Nigel, everything will be well because...er because he says so.

Thought-provoking contribution, 19 Aug 2008
In this thought-provoking book, Nigel Lawson asks key questions about global warming. Is the world warming and if so, why? How much warmer will it get? What will be the consequences? What can and should we do about it? What is the most cost-effective way to tackle it?

He looks at the temperature record. Surprisingly, temperatures have not risen since 2001, even though global CO2 emissions have been rising faster than ever. There was a 0.7oC rise over the last century while the CO2 in the atmosphere rose by 30%, largely caused by industrialisation driven by the rapid worldwide growth of carbon-based energy consumption (burning coal, oil and gas). Some, possibly most, of the warming is due to this growth of CO2 emissions and so of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report predicted a sea-level rise of between 18 and 59 centimetres by 2100. (Its 1990 report predicted a 3.67 metre rise.) The IPCC predicted a 1.8o-4oC temperature rise by 2100, a mean of less than 3oC. (At 3oC, it says, "Globally, the potential for food production is projected to increase.") 3oC is 0.03oC a year, compared to 1975-2000's 0.02oC a year.

The IPCC says the one `virtually certain' impact of global warming is `reduced human mortality from decreased cold exposure'. A 2003 Department of Health study confirmed this, predicting a decrease in cold-related mortality of 20,000 and an increase in heat-related mortality of 2,000 by the 2050s.

On the IPCC's worst case scenario, of 1% growth a year in the developed countries and 2.3% in the developing countries, global warming could cost us 5% of world GDP by 2100. This would make developed countries' GDP 2.6 times today's rather than 2.7 and developing countries' GDP 8.5 times today's rather than 9.5.

Lawson argues that we should drop the precautionary principle because it is wrong to take decisions on the basis of worst-case possibilities: probabilities, not possibilities, should be our guide.

He looks at the prospects of some specific disasters. He notes that Antarctic ice-sheets are growing, that the IPCC's 2007 report said that an `abrupt transition' of the Gulf Stream is `very unlikely' and that the World Meteorological Organization said of climate change's effects on hurricanes, "no firm conclusion can be made on this point."

The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme has increased profits for selected emitters and not cut emissions. Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism has done no better. The EU promotes growing biofuels, yet the Chinese government has suspended the production of the biofuel ethanol because it has raised food prices.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said that meeting the EU's agreed target of 20% of energy from renewables by 2020 would raise our electricity costs by £18-22 billion a year.

In June 2007 Merkel and Blair tried to get the G8 to agree to cut emissions by 50% by 2050. The rest rejected the idea. Six months later, Britain and Germany lost again when they proposed a mandatory global emissions cut of 25-40% by 2020.

We could control the world's temperature by severely limiting carbon dioxide emissions through raising prices of carbon-based energy, to make non-carbon-based energy more competitive. But this would force our energy-intensive industries out to China and other countries. (Although China's, and India's, emissions per head are still far less than the West's.) 1990s Russia showed that the only way to meet the Kyoto targets is to destroy your industries.

Lawson argues for an across-the-board carbon tax, even if it forces our remaining energy-intensive industries abroad, and for ending subsidies to all carbon-based energy. Instead, we need to keep our industries, se we need new carbon-based power stations and new gas storage facilities, which the market has not provided and will not provide.




Deluded amateur challenges the science, 12 Aug 2008
Lawson flies in the face of scientific consensus with no solid basis for his position. An unhelpful book.

Beautiful! Ideal for the the armchair cloudwatcher., 04 Sep 2008

This is a fantastic book and I was glad I bought it. The foreword is very informative and well written and doesn't boggle the reader with too much science. This book is ideal for those armchair cloud watchers who know a bit about clouds but need to further their knowledge. This book is an essential guide to cloud identification and provides some stunning photos of the clouds themselves. The book is also handy for being able to forecast the weather as you will soon get to know the cloud types and the associated weather that comes with them.



The sky's the limit, 27 May 2008
Recently I found a book that I could only dream of as a child, but which didn't seem to exist. Then I was fascinated by the weather and wanted a book classifying the cloud types with the correct names, symbols and pictures to demonstrate. Richard Hamblyn's "The Cloud Book" does all these things. The beauty of the photographs means it easily qualifies for the coffee tables of the less geeky among us, while neatly illustrating the text for the cloud afficianado. It is not often that you can say a book is perfect in all respects, but may be this is one.

fascinating stuff, 19 Nov 2008
I found this book fascinating. I really enjoyed reading about the records concerning British weather, such as The Weirdest Showers or The 1987 Storm. It is interesting to see how the British climate has changed so much over the 1000 years the book covers and the freakish goings on of our weather!

Snowballing bandwagons, 15 Nov 2008
No one would accuse Simons of being a stylist. Observe the steady drizzle of cliche ('The disaster sent shock waves through the public. The Bridge had been opened only for 18 months, and was seen as a triumph of Victorian engineering'). Marvel as he mixes his metaphors ('But the white Christmas bandwagon snowballed and the icy charms of A Christmas Carol struck a chord with the Victorians, nostalgic for the past...'). Shiver at the redundancies ('By 1779 Britain was almost on the verge of bankruptcy...'). He can keep this up for pages, the prose equivalent of a wet November.

But the style is not the only annoying feature of the book. Although marketed as 'a complete guide to record-breaking weather in the British Isles', there is no index or indeed any other reliable way of locating information about the wettest day or the biggest hail-stones.

Nor does Simons acknowledge any of his sources, so there is no way of checking up on the information, or reading further into the subject. Numerous typos and missing words also betray the speed and lack of care with which the book has been assembled.

The subject matter is, of course, fascinating. But it could all have been done so much better.

Just what it says on the tin, 16 Sep 2008
This is a wonderful book. As the title suggests, it is cool, reasonable, and patient, looking carefully at all the evidence and coming to conclusions which it is hard to disagree with.

Like other reviewers, I find it hard to take excerpts from the book because I would have to quote the whole thing! However, perhaps I may try to help anyone who is wondering whether to read it. One way to look at the global warming/climate change debate is to ask oneself three questions.

First, is the world getting warmer?
Second, is human activity, and specifically CO2, a major cause?
And third, does it matter? Will there be harmful consequences? And if so, what should we do about them?

Much of the angry debate between believers and sceptics rages round the first two points. Lawson surveys the evidence on both, and comes to a conclusion. But what makes this book so powerful is its focus on the third question: whether a warmer world is one that will harm people, animals, plants, and our descendants. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) argues that it will. Lawson disagrees. He takes us through the IPCC scenarios, and their range of predictions relating to five potential impacts of a warmer world: on water, ecosystems, food, coasts, and health. In each case he demonstrates, with evidence, that a warmer world will either be neutral or even beneficial. What makes this evidence particularly persuasive is that much of it is drawn from the IPCC's own 4th report (2007)!.

It would be wrong to think of this book as complacent, a kind of 'I'm all right, Jack, pull up the ladder'. As Lawson points out, the single major cause of ill-health and death in the world is poverty, and if we take the standpoint of human welfare, the surest way to benefit humans is to lift them out of poverty. Lawson sees many serious problems facing the world, and many things that urgently need putting right. The view of this compelling and convincing book is that global warming isn't one of them.


A call for solid science to replace the hype and hysteria, 14 Sep 2008
A well written and thought provoking book that attempts to speak above the hysterical din that dominates the subject.

The author calls for a considered approach and appeals to organisations to address the issues we face in a sensible and practical way.



Lawson knows best apparently, 23 Aug 2008
The combined wisdom of the world's leading climate change scientists is clearly no match for Nigel Lawson. He alone is clear sighted enough to see these clever people are all wrong. Stop worrying you people on coastlands and islands as you watch the tide rising. Stop fussing about those droughts Africa and Australia! Trust Nigel, everything will be well because...er because he says so.

Thought-provoking contribution, 19 Aug 2008
In this thought-provoking book, Nigel Lawson asks key questions about global warming. Is the world warming and if so, why? How much warmer will it get? What will be the consequences? What can and should we do about it? What is the most cost-effective way to tackle it?

He looks at the temperature record. Surprisingly, temperatures have not risen since 2001, even though global CO2 emissions have been rising faster than ever. There was a 0.7oC rise over the last century while the CO2 in the atmosphere rose by 30%, largely caused by industrialisation driven by the rapid worldwide growth of carbon-based energy consumption (burning coal, oil and gas). Some, possibly most, of the warming is due to this growth of CO2 emissions and so of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report predicted a sea-level rise of between 18 and 59 centimetres by 2100. (Its 1990 report predicted a 3.67 metre rise.) The IPCC predicted a 1.8o-4oC temperature rise by 2100, a mean of less than 3oC. (At 3oC, it says, "Globally, the potential for food production is projected to increase.") 3oC is 0.03oC a year, compared to 1975-2000's 0.02oC a year.

The IPCC says the one `virtually certain' impact of global warming is `reduced human mortality from decreased cold exposure'. A 2003 Department of Health study confirmed this, predicting a decrease in cold-related mortality of 20,000 and an increase in heat-related mortality of 2,000 by the 2050s.

On the IPCC's worst case scenario, of 1% growth a year in the developed countries and 2.3% in the developing countries, global warming could cost us 5% of world GDP by 2100. This would make developed countries' GDP 2.6 times today's rather than 2.7 and developing countries' GDP 8.5 times today's rather than 9.5.

Lawson argues that we should drop the precautionary principle because it is wrong to take decisions on the basis of worst-case possibilities: probabilities, not possibilities, should be our guide.

He looks at the prospects of some specific disasters. He notes that Antarctic ice-sheets are growing, that the IPCC's 2007 report said that an `abrupt transition' of the Gulf Stream is `very unlikely' and that the World Meteorological Organization said of climate change's effects on hurricanes, "no firm conclusion can be made on this point."

The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme has increased profits for selected emitters and not cut emissions. Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism has done no better. The EU promotes growing biofuels, yet the Chinese government has suspended the production of the biofuel ethanol because it has raised food prices.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said that meeting the EU's agreed target of 20% of energy from renewables by 2020 would raise our electricity costs by £18-22 billion a year.

In June 2007 Merkel and Blair tried to get the G8 to agree to cut emissions by 50% by 2050. The rest rejected the idea. Six months later, Britain and Germany lost again when they proposed a mandatory global emissions cut of 25-40% by 2020.

We could control the world's temperature by severely limiting carbon dioxide emissions through raising prices of carbon-based energy, to make non-carbon-based energy more competitive. But this would force our energy-intensive industries out to China and other countries. (Although China's, and India's, emissions per head are still far less than the West's.) 1990s Russia showed that the only way to meet the Kyoto targets is to destroy your industries.

Lawson argues for an across-the-board carbon tax, even if it forces our remaining energy-intensive industries abroad, and for ending subsidies to all carbon-based energy. Instead, we need to keep our industries, se we need new carbon-based power stations and new gas storage facilities, which the market has not provided and will not provide.




Deluded amateur challenges the science, 12 Aug 2008
Lawson flies in the face of scientific consensus with no solid basis for his position. An unhelpful book.

Beautiful! Ideal for the the armchair cloudwatcher., 04 Sep 2008

This is a fantastic book and I was glad I bought it. The foreword is very informative and well written and doesn't boggle the reader with too much science. This book is ideal for those armchair cloud watchers who know a bit about clouds but need to further their knowledge. This book is an essential guide to cloud identification and provides some stunning photos of the clouds themselves. The book is also handy for being able to forecast the weather as you will soon get to know the cloud types and the associated weather that comes with them.



The sky's the limit, 27 May 2008
Recently I found a book that I could only dream of as a child, but which didn't seem to exist. Then I was fascinated by the weather and wanted a book classifying the cloud types with the correct names, symbols and pictures to demonstrate. Richard Hamblyn's "The Cloud Book" does all these things. The beauty of the photographs means it easily qualifies for the coffee tables of the less geeky among us, while neatly illustrating the text for the cloud afficianado. It is not often that you can say a book is perfect in all respects, but may be this is one.

fascinating stuff, 19 Nov 2008
I found this book fascinating. I really enjoyed reading about the records concerning British weather, such as The Weirdest Showers or The 1987 Storm. It is interesting to see how the British climate has changed so much over the 1000 years the book covers and the freakish goings on of our weather!

Snowballing bandwagons, 15 Nov 2008
No one would accuse Simons of being a stylist. Observe the steady drizzle of cliche ('The disaster sent shock waves through the public. The Bridge had been opened only for 18 months, and was seen as a triumph of Victorian engineering'). Marvel as he mixes his metaphors ('But the white Christmas bandwagon snowballed and the icy charms of A Christmas Carol struck a chord with the Victorians, nostalgic for the past...'). Shiver at the redundancies ('By 1779 Britain was almost on the verge of bankruptcy...'). He can keep this up for pages, the prose equivalent of a wet November.

But the style is not the only annoying feature of the book. Although marketed as 'a complete guide to record-breaking weather in the British Isles', there is no index or indeed any other reliable way of locating information about the wettest day or the biggest hail-stones.

Nor does Simons acknowledge any of his sources, so there is no way of checking up on the information, or reading further into the subject. Numerous typos and missing words also betray the speed and lack of care with which the book has been assembled.

The subject matter is, of course, fascinating. But it could all have been done so much better.



Come on..., 28 Oct 2008
For crying out loud, why don't we all open our mouths and swallow whatever rot the 'IPCC' feed us. There are so many flaws with this book that can only be seen as propoganda aimed at people who cannot think for themselves. Yes, global warming is almost certainly occurring but it has been blown out of all proportion and all to benefit propositions made by the government. (Carbon taxes to name but one, however that's a whole different kettle of fish.) Look at the End-Permian extinction. An approximated rise in temperature of 5 degrees Celcius is believed to have wiped out the vast majority of terrestrial and marine life. Do you really think this took a century?! Evidence pointing to the Permo-Triassic extinction has been locked away in stratigraphy - the thickness of which is substantianly more than could be deposited in a century! Think between 100,000 to 300,000 years worth.

So come on Mark Lynas, 6 degrees celcius in a century is hugely arrogant because we are so insignificant regarding global surface processes. If you were to look at recent scientific papers, you might be surprised to find that climatologists and geologists predict a 0.8 degree rise in temperature over the next century.

File this one under fantasy.

This book could save your life, 06 Oct 2008
This is the best book on the subject I have ever read and I feel it should be mandatory for all school children over 12 years old. I have been following the global warming debate for over 20 years now (both as an environmentalist and former journalist) from its early days when there were a few very worried scientists getting trashed by the politicians to protect big business, to now when we have thousands of very worried leading scientists and terrified experts of the highest calibre getting trashed by politicians to protect big business. This book is vital and I only wish it could have appeared ten years ago when we still had a chance of making a real difference. The science that Lynas reviews is the best available to us and he communicates difficult subject matter very clearly and with real skill. For such a dry subject (no pun intended) the book is actually quite gripping but it doesn't fall into the easy trap of trivialising or sensationalising the raw data. Let's face it, these are terrifying enough on their own. Read it, it could save your life.

Lynas paints a possible apocalyptic future for us all , 01 Oct 2008
Mark Lynas had spent months in libraries reading and taking notes about future global weather changes from scientific journals and from his studies he has put together this book.
The book explains to the reader what would happen to the planet if it were to get six degrees hotter over the next 100 years.
Each chapter explains what would happen to world as it got 1 degree hotter.
Chapter 1 explains what would happen if the planet got one degree hotter and chapter 6 finishes by explaining what would happen if the planet got six degrees hotter.
This book is not easy to digest as it paints a very apocalyptic future for us humans should climate change not be halted.
In the final chapter Mark explains how we can prevent this scenario ever happening.
A very different book from Al Gore's inconvient truth in a sense that this book looks at what could happen rather than what is happening now.
If the subject global warming interests you than this book is well worth a read and will give you a great insight in future life on earth if we fail to act now.


'business as usual' .... I don't think so., 22 Jul 2008
no politition could read this book and stay in office with 'business as usual' without being in total denial. not sensational in it's presentation, but leaves little to the imagination. Surely we've had it, haven't we? Don't leave too much money to your children - it will be of little use.

BAFFLED, 17 Jun 2008
One thing baffles me about this book by an evangelical warmista - and I wish Lynas would answer. He has not addressed one simple proven fact... that in the last 10 years the globe has been cooling quite markedly at a time when carbon emissions have never been higher. How does he square this with his alarmist views ? The fact is that a very great many reputable scientists the world over question whether anything we do has any effect on our climate - though clearly we pollute our environment and destroy the habitat for other creatures; but that is a different issue. The globe has warmed and cooled, warmed and cooled, for many billions of years and our climate has changed and will continue to change regardless of these tiny specks called humans.
Global warming was until around 2,000, since when the globe has been cooling. Will it warm up again ? Who knows ? There are only computer projections and we know those cannot not even get the long range weather forecast right for the British Isles

Just what it says on the tin, 16 Sep 2008
This is a wonderful book. As the title suggests, it is cool, reasonable, and patient, looking carefully at all the evidence and coming to conclusions which it is hard to disagree with.

Like other reviewers, I find it hard to take excerpts from the book because I would have to quote the whole thing! However, perhaps I may try to help anyone who is wondering whether to read it. One way to look at the global warming/climate change debate is to ask oneself three questions.

First, is the world getting warmer?
Second, is human activity, and specifically CO2, a major cause?
And third, does it matter? Will there be harmful consequences? And if so, what should we do about them?

Much of the angry debate between believers and sceptics rages round the first two points. Lawson surveys the evidence on both, and comes to a conclusion. But what makes this book so powerful is its focus on the third question: whether a warmer world is one that will harm people, animals, plants, and our descendants. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) argues that it will. Lawson disagrees. He takes us through the IPCC scenarios, and their range of predictions relating to five potential impacts of a warmer world: on water, ecosystems, food, coasts, and health. In each case he demonstrates, with evidence, that a warmer world will either be neutral or even beneficial. What makes this evidence particularly persuasive is that much of it is drawn from the IPCC's own 4th report (2007)!.

It would be wrong to think of this book as complacent, a kind of 'I'm all right, Jack, pull up the ladder'. As Lawson points out, the single major cause of ill-health and death in the world is poverty, and if we take the standpoint of human welfare, the surest way to benefit humans is to lift them out of poverty. Lawson sees many serious problems facing the world, and many things that urgently need putting right. The view of this compelling and convincing book is that global warming isn't one of them.


A call for solid science to replace the hype and hysteria, 14 Sep 2008
A well written and thought provoking book that attempts to speak above the hysterical din that dominates the subject.

The author calls for a considered approach and appeals to organisations to address the issues we face in a sensible and practical way.



Lawson knows best apparently, 23 Aug 2008
The combined wisdom of the world's leading climate change scientists is clearly no match for Nigel Lawson. He alone is clear sighted enough to see these clever people are all wrong. Stop worrying you people on coastlands and islands as you watch the tide rising. Stop fussing about those droughts Africa and Australia! Trust Nigel, everything will be well because...er because he says so.

Thought-provoking contribution, 19 Aug 2008
In this thought-provoking book, Nigel Lawson asks key questions about global warming. Is the world warming and if so, why? How much warmer will it get? What will be the consequences? What can and should we do about it? What is the most cost-effective way to tackle it?

He looks at the temperature record. Surprisingly, temperatures have not risen since 2001, even though global CO2 emissions have been rising faster than ever. There was a 0.7oC rise over the last century while the CO2 in the atmosphere rose by 30%, largely caused by industrialisation driven by the rapid worldwide growth of carbon-based energy consumption (burning coal, oil and gas). Some, possibly most, of the warming is due to this growth of CO2 emissions and so of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report predicted a sea-level rise of between 18 and 59 centimetres by 2100. (Its 1990 report predicted a 3.67 metre rise.) The IPCC predicted a 1.8o-4oC temperature rise by 2100, a mean of less than 3oC. (At 3oC, it says, "Globally, the potential for food production is projected to increase.") 3oC is 0.03oC a year, compared to 1975-2000's 0.02oC a year.

The IPCC says the one `virtually certain' impact of global warming is `reduced human mortality from decreased cold exposure'. A 2003 Department of Health study confirmed this, predicting a decrease in cold-related mortality of 20,000 and an increase in heat-related mortality of 2,000 by the 2050s.

On the IPCC's worst case scenario, of 1% growth a year in the developed countries and 2.3% in the developing countries, global warming could cost us 5% of world GDP by 2100. This would make developed countries' GDP 2.6 times today's rather than 2.7 and developing countries' GDP 8.5 times today's rather than 9.5.

Lawson argues that we should drop the precautionary principle because it is wrong to take decisions on the basis of worst-case possibilities: probabilities, not possibilities, should be our guide.

He looks at the prospects of some specific disasters. He notes that Antarctic ice-sheets are growing, that the IPCC's 2007 report said that an `abrupt transition' of the Gulf Stream is `very unlikely' and that the World Meteorological Organization said of climate change's effects on hurricanes, "no firm conclusion can be made on this point."

The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme has increased profits for selected emitters and not cut emissions. Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism has done no better. The EU promotes growing biofuels, yet the Chinese government has suspended the production of the biofuel ethanol because it has raised food prices.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said that meeting the EU's agreed target of 20% of energy from renewables by 2020 would raise our electricity costs by £18-22 billion a year.

In June 2007 Merkel and Blair tried to get the G8 to agree to cut emissions by 50% by 2050. The rest rejected the idea. Six months later, Britain and Germany lost again when they proposed a mandatory global emissions cut of 25-40% by 2020.

We could control the world's temperature by severely limiting carbon dioxide emissions through raising prices of carbon-based energy, to make non-carbon-based energy more competitive. But this would force our energy-intensive industries out to China and other countries. (Although China's, and India's, emissions per head are still far less than the West's.) 1990s Russia showed that the only way to meet the Kyoto targets is to destroy your industries.

Lawson argues for an across-the-board carbon tax, even if it forces our remaining energy-intensive industries abroad, and for ending subsidies to all carbon-based energy. Instead, we need to keep our industries, se we need new carbon-based power stations and new gas storage facilities, which the market has not provided and will not provide.




Deluded amateur challenges the science, 12 Aug 2008
Lawson flies in the face of scientific consensus with no solid basis for his position. An unhelpful book.

Beautiful! Ideal for the the armchair cloudwatcher., 04 Sep 2008

This is a fantastic book and I was glad I bought it. The foreword is very informative and well written and doesn't boggle the reader with too much science. This book is ideal for those armchair cloud watchers who know a bit about clouds but need to further their knowledge. This book is an essential guide to cloud identification and provides some stunning photos of the clouds themselves. The book is also handy for being able to forecast the weather as you will soon get to know the cloud types and the associated weather that comes with them.



The sky's the limit, 27 May 2008
Recently I found a book that I could only dream of as a child, but which didn't seem to exist. Then I was fascinated by the weather and wanted a book classifying the cloud types with the correct names, symbols and pictures to demonstrate. Richard Hamblyn's "The Cloud Book" does all these things. The beauty of the photographs means it easily qualifies for the coffee tables of the less geeky among us, while neatly illustrating the text for the cloud afficianado. It is not often that you can say a book is perfect in all respects, but may be this is one.

fascinating stuff, 19 Nov 2008
I found this book fascinating. I really enjoyed reading about the records concerning British weather, such as The Weirdest Showers or The 1987 Storm. It is interesting to see how the British climate has changed so much over the 1000 years the book covers and the freakish goings on of our weather!

Snowballing bandwagons, 15 Nov 2008
No one would accuse Simons of being a stylist. Observe the steady drizzle of cliche ('The disaster sent shock waves through the public. The Bridge had been opened only for 18 months, and was seen as a triumph of Victorian engineering'). Marvel as he mixes his metaphors ('But the white Christmas bandwagon snowballed and the icy charms of A Christmas Carol struck a chord with the Victorians, nostalgic for the past...'). Shiver at the redundancies ('By 1779 Britain was almost on the verge of bankruptcy...'). He can keep this up for pages, the prose equivalent of a wet November.

But the style is not the only annoying feature of the book. Although marketed as 'a complete guide to record-breaking weather in the British Isles', there is no index or indeed any other reliable way of locating information about the wettest day or the biggest hail-stones.

Nor does Simons acknowledge any of his sources, so there is no way of checking up on the information, or reading further into the subject. Numerous typos and missing words also betray the speed and lack of care with which the book has been assembled.

The subject matter is, of course, fascinating. But it could all have been done so much better.



Come on..., 28 Oct 2008
For crying out loud, why don't we all open our mouths and swallow whatever rot the 'IPCC' feed us. There are so many flaws with this book that can only be seen as propoganda aimed at people who cannot think for themselves. Yes, global warming is almost certainly occurring but it has been blown out of all proportion and all to benefit propositions made by the government. (Carbon taxes to name but one, however that's a whole different kettle of fish.) Look at the End-Permian extinction. An approximated rise in temperature of 5 degrees Celcius is believed to have wiped out the vast majority of terrestrial and marine life. Do you really think this took a century?! Evidence pointing to the Permo-Triassic extinction has been locked away in stratigraphy - the thickness of which is substantianly more than could be deposited in a century! Think between 100,000 to 300,000 years worth.

So come on Mark Lynas, 6 degrees celcius in a century is hugely arrogant because we are so insignificant regarding global surface processes. If you were to look at recent scientific papers, you might be surprised to find that climatologists and geologists predict a 0.8 degree rise in temperature over the next century.

File this one under fantasy.

This book could save your life, 06 Oct 2008
This is the best book on the subject I have ever read and I feel it should be mandatory for all school children over 12 years old. I have been following the global warming debate for over 20 years now (both as an environmentalist and former journalist) from its early days when there were a few very worried scientists getting trashed by the politicians to protect big business, to now when we have thousands of very worried leading scientists and terrified experts of the highest calibre getting trashed by politicians to protect big business. This book is vital and I only wish it could have appeared ten years ago when we still had a chance of making a real difference. The science that Lynas reviews is the best available to us and he communicates difficult subject matter very clearly and with real skill. For such a dry subject (no pun intended) the book is actually quite gripping but it doesn't fall into the easy trap of trivialising or sensationalising the raw data. Let's face it, these are terrifying enough on their own. Read it, it could save your life.

Lynas paints a possible apocalyptic future for us all , 01 Oct 2008
Mark Lynas had spent months in libraries reading and taking notes about future global weather changes from scientific journals and from his studies he has put together this book.
The book explains to the reader what would happen to the planet if it were to get six degrees hotter over the next 100 years.
Each chapter explains what would happen to world as it got 1 degree hotter.
Chapter 1 explains what would happen if the planet got one degree hotter and chapter 6 finishes by explaining what would happen if the planet got six degrees hotter.
This book is not easy to digest as it paints a very apocalyptic future for us humans should climate change not be halted.
In the final chapter Mark explains how we can prevent this scenario ever happening.
A very different book from Al Gore's inconvient truth in a sense that this book looks at what could happen rather than what is happening now.
If the subject global warming interests you than this book is well worth a read and will give you a great insight in future life on earth if we fail to act now.


'business as usual' .... I don't think so., 22 Jul 2008
no politition could read this book and stay in office with 'business as usual' without being in total denial. not sensational in it's presentation, but leaves little to the imagination. Surely we've had it, haven't we? Don't leave too much money to your children - it will be of little use.

BAFFLED, 17 Jun 2008
One thing baffles me about this book by an evangelical warmista - and I wish Lynas would answer. He has not addressed one simple proven fact... that in the last 10 years the globe has been cooling quite markedly at a time when carbon emissions have never been higher. How does he square this with his alarmist views ? The fact is that a very great many reputable scientists the world over question whether anything we do has any effect on our climate - though clearly we pollute our environment and destroy the habitat for other creatures; but that is a different issue. The globe has warmed and cooled, warmed and cooled, for many billions of years and our climate has changed and will continue to change regardless of these tiny specks called humans.
Global warming was until around 2,000, since when the globe has been cooling. Will it warm up again ? Who knows ? There are only computer projections and we know those cannot not even get the long range weather forecast right for the British Isles

Informative and Invividual - Excellent read , 08 Oct 2008
This is a good book for anyone interested not just in disasters, but in the Weather & Climate of the British Isles.

It is easy to read, irrespective of your level of knowledge on the subject, and is very well researched.

It is written in an individual, sometimes amusing, but always informative style

Highly recommended


its helped me with my exams!, 24 Sep 2007
philip edan has helped me to understand alot more about weather and has got me interested in taking the study of weather patterns further! he has mainly helped me with my geography exams!

Just what it says on the tin, 16 Sep 2008
This is a wonderful book. As the title suggests, it is cool, reasonable, and patient, looking carefully at all the evidence and coming to conclusions which it is hard to disagree with.

Like other reviewers, I find it hard to take excerpts from the book because I would have to quote the whole thing! However, perhaps I may try to help anyone who is wondering whether to read it. One way to look at the global warming/climate change debate is to ask oneself three questions.

First, is the world getting warmer?
Second, is human activity, and specifically CO2, a major cause?
And third, does it matter? Will there be harmful consequences? And if so, what should we do about them?

Much of the angry debate between believers and sceptics rages round the first two points. Lawson surveys the evidence on both, and comes to a conclusion. But what makes this book so powerful is its focus on the third question: whether a warmer world is one that will harm people, animals, plants, and our descendants. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) argues that it will. Lawson disagrees. He takes us through the IPCC scenarios, and their range of predictions relating to five potential impacts of a warmer world: on water, ecosystems, food, coasts, and health. In each case he demonstrates, with evidence, that a warmer world will either be neutral or even beneficial. What makes this evidence particularly persuasive is that much of it is drawn from the IPCC's own 4th report (2007)!.

It would be wrong to think of this book as complacent, a kind of 'I'm all right, Jack, pull up the ladder'. As Lawson points out, the single major cause of ill-health and death in the world is poverty, and if we take the standpoint of human welfare, the surest way to benefit humans is to lift them out of poverty. Lawson sees many serious problems facing the world, and many things that urgently need putting right. The view of this compelling and convincing book is that global warming isn't one of them.


A call for solid science to replace the hype and hysteria, 14 Sep 2008
A well written and thought provoking book that attempts to speak above the hysterical din that dominates the subject.

The author calls for a considered approach and appeals to organisations to address the issues we face in a sensible and practical way.



Lawson knows best apparently, 23 Aug 2008
The combined wisdom of the world's leading climate change scientists is clearly no match for Nigel Lawson. He alone is clear sighted enough to see these clever people are all wrong. Stop worrying you people on coastlands and islands as you watch the tide rising. Stop fussing about those droughts Africa and Australia! Trust Nigel, everything will be well because...er because he says so.

Thought-provoking contribution, 19 Aug 2008
In this thought-provoking book, Nigel Lawson asks key questions about global warming. Is the world warming and if so, why? How much warmer will it get? What will be the consequences? What can and should we do about it? What is the most cost-effective way to tackle it?

He looks at the temperature record. Surprisingly, temperatures have not risen since 2001, even though global CO2 emissions have been rising faster than ever. There was a 0.7oC rise over the last century while the CO2 in the atmosphere rose by 30%, largely caused by industrialisation driven by the rapid worldwide growth of carbon-based energy consumption (burning coal, oil and gas). Some, possibly most, of the warming is due to this growth of CO2 emissions and so of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report predicted a sea-level rise of between 18 and 59 centimetres by 2100. (Its 1990 report predicted a 3.67 metre rise.) The IPCC predicted a 1.8o-4oC temperature rise by 2100, a mean of less than 3oC. (At 3oC, it says, "Globally, the potential for food production is projected to increase.") 3oC is 0.03oC a year, compared to 1975-2000's 0.02oC a year.

The IPCC says the one `virtually certain' impact of global warming is `reduced human mortality from decreased cold exposure'. A 2003 Department of Health study confirmed this, predicting a decrease in cold-related mortality of 20,000 and an increase in heat-related mortality of 2,000 by the 2050s.

On the IPCC's worst case scenario, of 1% growth a year in the developed countries and 2.3% in the developing countries, global warming could cost us 5% of world GDP by 2100. This would make developed countries' GDP 2.6 times today's rather than 2.7 and developing countries' GDP 8.5 times today's rather than 9.5.

Lawson argues that we should drop the precautionary principle because it is wrong to take decisions on the basis of worst-case possibilities: probabilities, not possibilities, should be our guide.

He looks at the prospects of some specific disasters. He notes that Antarctic ice-sheets are growing, that the IPCC's 2007 report said that an `abrupt transition' of the Gulf Stream is `very unlikely' and that the World Meteorological Organization said of climate change's effects on hurricanes, "no firm conclusion can be made on this point."

The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme has increased profits for selected emitters and not cut emissions. Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism has done no better. The EU promotes growing biofuels, yet the Chinese government has suspended the production of the biofuel ethanol because it has raised food prices.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said that meeting the EU's agreed target of 20% of energy from renewables by 2020 would raise our electricity costs by £18-22 billion a year.

In June 2007 Merkel and Blair tried to get the G8 to agree to cut emissions by 50% by 2050. The rest rejected the idea. Six months later, Britain and Germany lost again when they proposed a mandatory global emissions cut of 25-40% by 2020.

We could control the world's temperature by severely limiting carbon dioxide emissions through raising prices of carbon-based energy, to make non-carbon-based energy more competitive. But this would force our energy-intensive industries out to China and other countries. (Although China's, and India's, emissions per head are still far less than the West's.) 1990s Russia showed that the only way to meet the Kyoto targets is to destroy your industries.

Lawson argues for an across-the-board carbon tax, even if it forces our remaining energy-intensive industries abroad, and for ending subsidies to all carbon-based energy. Instead, we need to keep our industries, se we need new carbon-based power stations and new gas storage facilities, which the market has not provided and will not provide.




Deluded amateur challenges the science, 12 Aug 2008
Lawson flies in the face of scientific consensus with no solid basis for his position. An unhelpful book.

Beautiful! Ideal for the the armchair cloudwatcher., 04 Sep 2008

This is a fantastic book and I was glad I bought it. The foreword is very informative and well written and doesn't boggle the reader with too much science. This book is ideal for those armchair cloud watchers who know a bit about clouds but need to further their knowledge. This book is an essential guide to cloud identification and provides some stunning photos of the clouds themselves. The book is also handy for being able to forecast the weather as you will soon get to know the cloud types and the associated weather that comes with them.



The sky's the limit, 27 May 2008
Recently I found a book that I could only dream of as a child, but which didn't seem to exist. Then I was fascinated by the weather and wanted a book classifying the cloud types with the correct names, symbols and pictures to demonstrate. Richard Hamblyn's "The Cloud Book" does all these things. The beauty of the photographs means it easily qualifies for the coffee tables of the less geeky among us, while neatly illustrating the text for the cloud afficianado. It is not often that you can say a book is perfect in all respects, but may be this is one.

fascinating stuff, 19 Nov 2008
I found this book fascinating. I really enjoyed reading about the records concerning British weather, such as The Weirdest Showers or The 1987 Storm. It is interesting to see how the British climate has changed so much over the 1000 years the book covers and the freakish goings on of our weather!

Snowballing bandwagons, 15 Nov 2008
No one would accuse Simons of being a stylist. Observe the steady drizzle of cliche ('The disaster sent shock waves through the public. The Bridge had been opened only for 18 months, and was seen as a triumph of Victorian engineering'). Marvel as he mixes his metaphors ('But the white Christmas bandwagon snowballed and the icy charms of A Christmas Carol struck a chord with the Victorians, nostalgic for the past...'). Shiver at the redundancies ('By 1779 Britain was almost on the verge of bankruptcy...'). He can keep this up for pages, the prose equivalent of a wet November.

But the style is not the only annoying feature of the book. Although marketed as 'a complete guide to record-breaking weather in the British Isles', there is no index or indeed any other reliable way of locating information about the wettest day or the biggest hail-stones.

Nor does Simons acknowledge any of his sources, so there is no way of checking up on the information, or reading further into the subject. Numerous typos and missing words also betray the speed and lack of care with which the book has been assembled.

The subject matter is, of course, fascinating. But it could all have been done so much better.



Come on..., 28 Oct 2008
For crying out loud, why don't we all open our mouths and swallow whatever rot the 'IPCC' feed us. There are so many flaws with this book that can only be seen as propoganda aimed at people who cannot think for themselves. Yes, global warming is almost certainly occurring but it has been blown out of all proportion and all to benefit propositions made by the government. (Carbon taxes to name but one, however that's a whole different kettle of fish.) Look at the End-Permian extinction. An approximated rise in temperature of 5 degrees Celcius is believed to have wiped out the vast majority of terrestrial and marine life. Do you really think this took a century?! Evidence pointing to the Permo-Triassic extinction has been locked away in stratigraphy - the thickness of which is substantianly more than could be deposited in a century! Think between 100,000 to 300,000 years worth.

So come on Mark Lynas, 6 degrees celcius in a century is hugely arrogant because we are so insignificant regarding global surface processes. If you were to look at recent scientific papers, you might be surprised to find that climatologists and geologists predict a 0.8 degree rise in temperature over the next century.

File this one under fantasy.

This book could save your life, 06 Oct 2008
This is the best book on the subject I have ever read and I feel it should be mandatory for all school children over 12 years old. I have been following the global warming debate for over 20 years now (both as an environmentalist and former journalist) from its early days when there were a few very worried scientists getting trashed by the politicians to protect big business, to now when we have thousands of very worried leading scientists and terrified experts of the highest calibre getting trashed by politicians to protect big business. This book is vital and I only wish it could have appeared ten years ago when we still had a chance of making a real difference. The science that Lynas reviews is the best available to us and he communicates difficult subject matter very clearly and with real skill. For such a dry subject (no pun intended) the book is actually quite gripping but it doesn't fall into the easy trap of trivialising or sensationalising the raw data. Let's face it, these are terrifying enough on their own. Read it, it could save your life.

Lynas paints a possible apocalyptic future for us all , 01 Oct 2008
Mark Lynas had spent months in libraries reading and taking notes about future global weather changes from scientific journals and from his studies he has put together this book.
The book explains to the reader what would happen to the planet if it were to get six degrees hotter over the next 100 years.
Each chapter explains what would happen to world as it got 1 degree hotter.
Chapter 1 explains what would happen if the planet got one degree hotter and chapter 6 finishes by explaining what would happen if the planet got six degrees hotter.
This book is not easy to digest as it paints a very apocalyptic future for us humans should climate change not be halted.
In the final chapter Mark explains how we can prevent this scenario ever happening.
A very different book from Al Gore's inconvient truth in a sense that this book looks at what could happen rather than what is happening now.
If the subject global warming interests you than this book is well worth a read and will give you a great insight in future life on earth if we fail to act now.


'business as usual' .... I don't think so., 22 Jul 2008
no politition could read this book and stay in office with 'business as usual' without being in total denial. not sensational in it's presentation, but leaves little to the imagination. Surely we've had it, haven't we? Don't leave too much money to your children - it will be of little use.

BAFFLED, 17 Jun 2008
One thing baffles me about this book by an evangelical warmista - and I wish Lynas would answer. He has not addressed one simple proven fact... that in the last 10 years the globe has been cooling quite markedly at a time when carbon emissions have never been higher. How does he square this with his alarmist views ? The fact is that a very great many reputable scientists the world over question whether anything we do has any effect on our climate - though clearly we pollute our environment and destroy the habitat for other creatures; but that is a different issue. The globe has warmed and cooled, warmed and cooled, for many billions of years and our climate has changed and will continue to change regardless of these tiny specks called humans.
Global warming was until around 2,000, since when the globe has been cooling. Will it warm up again ? Who knows ? There are only computer projections and we know those cannot not even get the long range weather forecast right for the British Isles

Informative and Invividual - Excellent read , 08 Oct 2008
This is a good book for anyone interested not just in disasters, but in the Weather & Climate of the British Isles.

It is easy to read, irrespective of your level of knowledge on the subject, and is very well researched.

It is written in an individual, sometimes amusing, but always informative style

Highly recommended


its helped me with my exams!, 24 Sep 2007
philip edan has helped me to understand alot more about weather and has got me interested in taking the study of weather patterns further! he has mainly helped me with my geography exams!

lovely reference book, 18 May 2008
This book is a great for those who have a 'beginner' interest in clouds, as it is mostly pictorial. I bought it as a gift for my boyfriend and he has great fun trying to identify what types of cloud are in the sky.

Such a dreadful shame, 26 Dec 2007
A beautiful book. I received a copy for Christmas (at my specific request!). I'm so sorry I can't give it the 5 stars it ought to have. Why? Because the quality of the photographic printing so often leaves a lot to be desired. I just don't believe that so many of the photos were, in their originals, as grainy as they have been reproduced. Even the paper feels rough! Pages 94/95 are just one example of many. I have loved clouds for decades and was really hoping for a set of photographs of coffee table standard. I am very disappointed. However, I would far rather have the book than not - and in spite of my criticism.

Wonderful, 27 Sep 2007
A marvellous book, pictures are wonderful, only minor niggle is that the author quotes figures in miles otherwise a wonderful book with the pictures taking pride of place, pity there isn't a DVD to show movement.

Superb!, 25 Dec 2006

Any aviator would tell you about the importance of the need to have a thorough understanding of the different types of clouds, how they are formed, and most especially, what they are telling us.

Look up in the sky and you'll see that each and every bit of cloud is telling us a different story, in addition to the spectacle you see right before your eyes.

Needless to say, it would be most foolish of any pilot not to fully understand the implication of the different types of clouds whilst on the ground, before a flight, as well as whilst in the air.

My interest in the clouds started a few years ago due to a near-miss air accident whilst learning to fly GA aircraft. My instructor and I nearly got sucked into the clouds, due to the fact that he, my instructor, being the pilot in command, failed to maintain the specified distance from the clouds whilst flying under VFR. Needless to say, we were lucky to get out of the way of the swelling cumulus which seemed to be coming after us as we were about to be sucked in. Phew, never again with a cloud suck!!

Having that bad experience and now flying the most personal form of aircraft, I searched around for a good book about the clouds. Luckily, I stumbled on this one and then decided to buy it.

Wow, what a book! This is a must-have for all pilots as well as anybody that's interested in the clouds. All credits to its author, Dr John A. Day, for his exposition of the subject like no other. He is indeed, the 'Cloud doctor'.

The author does not ramble on about the different cloud types, (that, indeed, would be most boring), rather, he gives a very short introduction to a particular type of cloud as well as the cloud family to which it belongs. This is then followed by photographs, more photographs and indeed more photographs.

Regarding each and every type of cloud, there's a very small but most important insert, showing its key characteristics, such as group, name, base, top, air mass stability, buoyancy, moisture content, temperature, frontal lift and precipitation type.

The key thing that sets this book apart from all the others out there is, its simplicity as well as the many photographs on each and every type of cloud formation that there is out there. So, so many photographs, you wouldn't believe it.

The best part is that most (if not all), of the photographs were actually taken by the author, who worked in the aviation industry until his retirement.

If you really need to understand the clouds, this is the book for you. It is a great book, bar none, in my humble opinion. Here's what I'd advice you to do inorder to get the most out of the book:

1. Firstly, read through the book from cover to cover.
2. Next, re-read it slowly and pay more attention.
3. Finally, close the book and leave it on your desk.
4. When you wake up from bed in the morning, just look out of your window and look at the sky. See if you can identify the type of cloud formation you see up there.
5. Can you identify the type of cloud? If so, what are its characteristics? If not, quickly refer to the book that's on your desk. Can you identify the cloud now after referring to the book? The photographs are all there for you to see. Do this as many times as possible until you really get to know the clouds. This is a must.
6. Are you a pilot? If so, after identifying the cloud, what would you say are its implications for flying? You really ought to get to grips with this aspect 'cos it's most crucial.

This is a superb book. Buy it if you can manage to get hold of it 'cos it sells like hot cake.



Ibiduo Chris Berepiki.









A tribute to the mutable majesty of clouds, 30 Aug 2006
John Day - or 'Cloudman' as he is known to thousands of Americans, both through his pioneering website and his visits to schools around the country - is truly the doyen of international cloud scholars. This book is the culmination of decades of research and reading, and is full of all manner of wit and wisdom concerning clouds, 'the patron goddesses of idle men', as the dramatist Aristophanes described them. The photographs, many of them taken by Day himself, are outstanding, and do much to bring the book to glorious life, showing how the sky really is an enormous free outdoor cinema screen. What a lovely book.

Just what it says on the tin, 16 Sep 2008
This is a wonderful book. As the title suggests, it is cool, reasonable, and patient, looking carefully at all the evidence and coming to conclusions which it is hard to disagree with.

Like other reviewers, I find it hard to take excerpts from the book because I would have to quote the whole thing! However, perhaps I may try to help anyone who is wondering whether to read it. One way to look at the global warming/climate change debate is to ask oneself three questions.

First, is the world getting warmer?
Second, is human activity, and specifically CO2, a major cause?
And third, does it matter? Will there be harmful consequences? And if so, what should we do about them?

Much of the angry debate between believers and sceptics rages round the first two points. Lawson surveys the evidence on both, and comes to a conclusion. But what makes this book so powerful is its focus on the third question: whether a warmer world is one that will harm people, animals, plants, and our descendants. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) argues that it will. Lawson disagrees. He takes us through the IPCC scenarios, and their range of predictions relating to five potential impacts of a warmer world: on water, ecosystems, food, coasts, and health. In each case he demonstrates, with evidence, that a warmer world will either be neutral or even beneficial. What makes this evidence particularly persuasive is that much of it is drawn from the IPCC's own 4th report (2007)!.

It would be wrong to think of this book as complacent, a kind of 'I'm all right, Jack, pull up the ladder'. As Lawson points out, the single major cause of ill-health and death in the world is poverty, and if we take the standpoint of human welfare, the surest way to benefit humans is to lift them out of poverty. Lawson sees many serious problems facing the world, and many things that urgently need putting right. The view of this compelling and convincing book is that global warming isn't one of them.


A call for solid science to replace the hype and hysteria, 14 Sep 2008
A well written and thought provoking book that attempts to speak above the hysterical din that dominates the subject.

The author calls for a considered approach and appeals to organisations to address the issues we face in a sensible and practical way.



Lawson knows best apparently, 23 Aug 2008
The combined wisdom of the world's leading climate change scientists is clearly no match for Nigel Lawson. He alone is clear sighted enough to see these clever people are all wrong. Stop worrying you people on coastlands and islands as you watch the tide rising. Stop fussing about those droughts Africa and Australia! Trust Nigel, everything will be well because...er because he says so.

Thought-provoking contribution, 19 Aug 2008
In this thought-provoking book, Nigel Lawson asks key questions about global warming. Is the world warming and if so, why? How much warmer will it get? What will be the consequences? What can and should we do about it? What is the most cost-effective way to tackle it?

He looks at the temperature record. Surprisingly, temperatures have not risen since 2001, even though global CO2 emissions have been rising faster than ever. There was a 0.7oC rise over the last century while the CO2 in the atmosphere rose by 30%, largely caused by industrialisation driven by the rapid worldwide growth of carbon-based energy consumption (burning coal, oil and gas). Some, possibly most, of the warming is due to this growth of CO2 emissions and so of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report predicted a sea-level rise of between 18 and 59 centimetres by 2100. (Its 1990 report predicted a 3.67 metre rise.) The IPCC predicted a 1.8o-4oC temperature rise by 2100, a mean of less than 3oC. (At 3oC, it says, "Globally, the potential for food production is projected to increase.") 3oC is 0.03oC a year, compared to 1975-2000's 0.02oC a year.

The IPCC says the one `virtually certain' impact of global warming is `reduced human mortality from decreased cold exposure'. A 2003 Department of Health study confirmed this, predicting a decrease in cold-related mortality of 20,000 and an increase in heat-related mortality of 2,000 by the 2050s.

On the IPCC's worst case scenario, of 1% growth a year in the developed countries and 2.3% in the developing countries, global warming could cost us 5% of world GDP by 2100. This would make developed countries' GDP 2.6 times today's rather than 2.7 and developing countries' GDP 8.5 times today's rather than 9.5.

Lawson argues that we should drop the precautionary principle because it is wrong to take decisions on the basis of worst-case possibilities: probabilities, not possibilities, should be our guide.

He looks at the prospects of some specific disasters. He notes that Antarctic ice-sheets are growing, that the IPCC's 2007 report said that an `abrupt transition' of the Gulf Stream is `very unlikely' and that the World Meteorological Organization said of climate change's effects on hurricanes, "no firm conclusion can be made on this point."

The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme has increased profits for selected emitters and not cut emissions. Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism has done no better. The EU promotes growing biofuels, yet the Chinese government has suspended the production of the biofuel ethanol because it has raised food prices.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said that meeting the EU's agreed target of 20% of energy from renewables by 2020 would raise our electricity costs by £18-22 billion a year.

In June 2007 Merkel and Blair tried to get the G8 to agree to cut emissions by 50% by 2050. The rest rejected the idea. Six months later, Britain and Germany lost again when they proposed a mandatory global emissions cut of 25-40% by 2020.

We could control the world's temperature by severely limiting carbon dioxide emissions through raising prices of carbon-based energy, to make non-carbon-based energy more competitive. But this would force our energy-intensive industries out to China and other countries. (Although China's, and India's, emissions per head are still far less than the West's.) 1990s Russia showed that the only way to meet the Kyoto targets is to destroy your industries.

Lawson argues for an across-the-board carbon tax, even if it forces our remaining energy-intensive industries abroad, and for ending subsidies to all carbon-based energy. Instead, we need to keep our industries, se we need new carbon-based power stations and new gas storage facilities, which the market has not provided and will not provide.




Deluded amateur challenges the science, 12 Aug 2008
Lawson flies in the face of scientific consensus with no solid basis for his position. An unhelpful book.

Beautiful! Ideal for the the armchair cloudwatcher., 04 Sep 2008

This is a fantastic book and I was glad I bought it. The foreword is very informative and well written and doesn't boggle the reader with too much science. This book is ideal for those armchair cloud watchers who know a bit about clouds but need to further their knowledge. This book is an essential guide to cloud identification and provides some stunning photos of the clouds themselves. The book is also handy for being able to forecast the weather as you will soon get to know the cloud types and the associated weather that comes with them.



The sky's the limit, 27 May 2008
Recently I found a book that I could only dream of as a child, but which didn't seem to exist. Then I was fascinated by the weather and wanted a book classifying the cloud types with the correct names, symbols and pictures to demonstrate. Richard Hamblyn's "The Cloud Book" does all these things. The beauty of the photographs means it easily qualifies for the coffee tables of the less geeky among us, while neatly illustrating the text for the cloud afficianado. It is not often that you can say a book is perfect in all respects, but may be this is one.

fascinating stuff, 19 Nov 2008
I found this book fascinating. I really enjoyed reading about the records concerning British weather, such as The Weirdest Showers or The 1987 Storm. It is interesting to see how the British climate has changed so much over the 1000 years the book covers and the freakish goings on of our weather!

Snowballing bandwagons, 15 Nov 2008
No one would accuse Simons of being a stylist. Observe the steady drizzle of cliche ('The disaster sent shock waves through the public. The Bridge had been opened only for 18 months, and was seen as a triumph of Victorian engineering'). Marvel as he mixes his metaphors ('But the white Christmas bandwagon snowballed and the icy charms of A Christmas Carol struck a chord with the Victorians, nostalgic for the past...'). Shiver at the redundancies ('By 1779 Britain was almost on the verge of bankruptcy...'). He can keep this up for pages, the prose equivalent of a wet November.

But the style is not the only annoying feature of the book. Although marketed as 'a complete guide to record-breaking weather in the British Isles', there is no index or indeed any other reliable way of locating information about the wettest day or the biggest hail-stones.

Nor does Simons acknowledge any of his sources, so there is no way of checking up on the information, or reading further into the subject. Numerous typos and missing words also betray the speed and lack of care with which the book has been assembled.

The subject matter is, of course, fascinating. But it could all have been done so much better.



Come on..., 28 Oct 2008
For crying out loud, why don't we all open our mouths and swallow whatever rot the 'IPCC' feed us. There are so many flaws with this book that can only be seen as propoganda aimed at people who cannot think for themselves. Yes, global warming is almost certainly occurring but it has been blown out of all proportion and all to benefit propositions made by the government. (Carbon taxes to name but one, however that's a whole different kettle of fish.) Look at the End-Permian extinction. An approximated rise in temperature of 5 degrees Celcius is believed to have wiped out the vast majority of terrestrial and marine life. Do you really think this took a century?! Evidence pointing to the Permo-Triassic extinction has been locked away in stratigraphy - the thickness of which is substantianly more than could be deposited in a century! Think between 100,000 to 300,000 years worth.

So come on Mark Lynas, 6 degrees celcius in a century is hugely arrogant because we are so insignificant regarding global surface processes. If you were to look at recent scientific papers, you might be surprised to find that climatologists and geologists predict a 0.8 degree rise in temperature over the next century.

File this one under fantasy.

This book could save your life, 06 Oct 2008
This is the best book on the subject I have ever read and I feel it should be mandatory for all school children over 12 years old. I have been following the global warming debate for over 20 years now (both as an environmentalist and former journalist) from its early days when there were a few very worried scientists getting trashed by the politicians to protect big business, to now when we have thousands of very worried leading scientists and terrified experts of the highest calibre getting trashed by politicians to protect big business. This book is vital and I only wish it could have appeared ten years ago when we still had a chance of making a real difference. The science that Lynas reviews is the best available to us and he communicates difficult subject matter very clearly and with real skill. For such a dry subject (no pun intended) the book is actually quite gripping but it doesn't fall into the easy trap of trivialising or sensationalising the raw data. Let's face it, these are terrifying enough on their own. Read it, it could save your life.

Lynas paints a possible apocalyptic future for us all , 01 Oct 2008
Mark Lynas had spent months in libraries reading and taking notes about future global weather changes from scientific journals and from his studies he has put together this book.
The book explains to the reader what would happen to the planet if it were to get six degrees hotter over the next 100 years.
Each chapter explains what would happen to world as it got 1 degree hotter.
Chapter 1 explains what would happen if the planet got one degree hotter and chapter 6 finishes by explaining what would happen if the planet got six degrees hotter.
This book is not easy to digest as it paints a very apocalyptic future for us humans should climate change not be halted.
In the final chapter Mark explains how we can prevent this scenario ever happening.
A very different book from Al Gore's inconvient truth in a sense that this book looks at what could happen rather than what is happening now.
If the subject global warming interests you than this book is well worth a read and will give you a great insight in future life on earth if we fail to act now.


'business as usual' .... I don't think so., 22 Jul 2008
no politition could read this book and stay in office with 'business as usual' without being in total denial. not sensational in it's presentation, but leaves little to the imagination. Surely we've had it, haven't we? Don't leave too much money to your children - it will be of little use.

BAFFLED, 17 Jun 2008
One thing baffles me about this book by an evangelical warmista - and I wish Lynas would answer. He has not addressed one simple proven fact... that in the last 10 years the globe has been cooling quite markedly at a time when carbon emissions have never been higher. How does he square this with his alarmist views ? The fact is that a very great many reputable scientists the world over question whether anything we do has any effect on our climate - though clearly we pollute our environment and destroy the habitat for other creatures; but that is a different issue. The globe has warmed and cooled, warmed and cooled, for many billions of years and our climate has changed and will continue to change regardless of these tiny specks called humans.
Global warming was until around 2,000, since when the globe has been cooling. Will it warm up again ? Who knows ? There are only computer projections and we know those cannot not even get the long range weather forecast right for the British Isles

Informative and Invividual - Excellent read , 08 Oct 2008
This is a good book for anyone interested not just in disasters, but in the Weather & Climate of the British Isles.

It is easy to read, irrespective of your level of knowledge on the subject, and is very well researched.

It is written in an individual, sometimes amusing, but always informative style

Highly recommended


its helped me with my exams!, 24 Sep 2007
philip edan has helped me to understand alot more about weather and has got me interested in taking the study of weather patterns further! he has mainly helped me with my geography exams!

lovely reference book, 18 May 2008
This book is a great for those who have a 'beginner' interest in clouds, as it is mostly pictorial. I bought it as a gift for my boyfriend and he has great fun trying to identify what types of cloud are in the sky.

Such a dreadful shame, 26 Dec 2007
A beautiful book. I received a copy for Christmas (at my specific request!). I'm so sorry I can't give it the 5 stars it ought to have. Why? Because the quality of the photographic printing so often leaves a lot to be desired. I just don't believe that so many of the photos were, in their originals, as grainy as they have been reproduced. Even the paper feels rough! Pages 94/95 are just one example of many. I have loved clouds for decades and was really hoping for a set of photographs of coffee table standard. I am very disappointed. However, I would far rather have the book than not - and in spite of my criticism.

Wonderful, 27 Sep 2007
A marvellous book, pictures are wonderful, only minor niggle is that the author quotes figures in miles otherwise a wonderful book with the pictures taking pride of place, pity there isn't a DVD to show movement.

Superb!, 25 Dec 2006

Any aviator would tell you about the importance of the need to have a thorough understanding of the different types of clouds, how they are formed, and most especially, what they are telling us.

Look up in the sky and you'll see that each and every bit of cloud is telling us a different story, in addition to the spectacle you see right before your eyes.

Needless to say, it would be most foolish of any pilot not to fully understand the implication of the different types of clouds whilst on the ground, before a flight, as well as whilst in the air.

My interest in the clouds started a few years ago due to a near-miss air accident whilst learning to fly GA aircraft. My instructor and I nearly got sucked into the clouds, due to the fact that he, my instructor, being the pilot in command, failed to maintain the specified distance from the clouds whilst flying under VFR. Needless to say, we were lucky to get out of the way of the swelling cumulus which seemed to be coming after us as we were about to be sucked in. Phew, never again with a cloud suck!!

Having that bad experience and now flying the most personal form of aircraft, I searched around for a good book about the clouds. Luckily, I stumbled on this one and then decided to buy it.

Wow, what a book! This is a must-have for all pilots as well as anybody that's interested in the clouds. All credits to its author, Dr John A. Day, for his exposition of the subject like no other. He is indeed, the 'Cloud doctor'.

The author does not ramble on about the different cloud types, (that, indeed, would be most boring), rather, he gives a very short introduction to a particular type of cloud as well as the cloud family to which it belongs. This is then followed by photographs, more photographs and indeed more photographs.

Regarding each and every type of cloud, there's a very small but most important insert, showing its key characteristics, such as group, name, base, top, air mass stability, buoyancy, moisture content, temperature, frontal lift and precipitation type.

The key thing that sets this book apart from all the others out there is, its simplicity as well as the many photographs on each and every type of cloud formation that there is out there. So, so many photographs, you wouldn't believe it.

The best part is that most (if not all), of the photographs were actually taken by the author, who worked in the aviation industry until his retirement.

If you really need to understand the clouds, this is the book for you. It is a great book, bar none, in my humble opinion. Here's what I'd advice you to do inorder to get the most out of the book:

1. Firstly, read through the book from cover to cover.
2. Next, re-read it slowly and pay more attention.
3. Finally, close the book and leave it on your desk.
4