By Bjorn Lomborg, Cambridge University Press, $29.99, 413 pages
Climate change is real. Despite a legion of disbelievers, there is little doubt that the climate of the Earth is changing. Every day we add more and more greenhouse gases to the climate, making solutions more and more difficult and costly. In this collection the issue is not whether climate change is real or not, but rather, tackles the best way to go about combating the problem, by analyzing costs and benefits of many different solutions.
There are several potential solutions in this book, ranging from reducing black carbon to adaptation. Each chapter is followed by short alternative proposals that are related to the chapter. At the end of the book several economists, including three Nobel prize winners, come up with what they think is the best route.
Smart Solutions to Climate Change is a book written more for policymakers and economists. It is not geared towards the average reader. With each chapter going into high level economic forecasts and climate change models, it will leave the average person in the dark. It is time we stopped talking about whether climate change is real and started doing something about it, and this is one book that will help.
Reviewed by Kevin Winter