Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth | 
| Authors: Christopher Booker, Richard North
Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $18.74
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New (29) Used (5) from $15.28
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 62857
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.8
ISBN: 0826486142
Dewey Decimal Number: 306
EAN: 9780826486141
ASIN: 0826486142
Publication Date: March 1, 2008
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Book Description
Modern society has regularly, in recent years, been gripped by a series of headline making "scares" - from mad cow disease to SARS -- which have become one of the most conspicuous and damaging features of our modern world. This book is the first to tell the inside story of each of the major scares of the past two decades, showing how they have followed a remarkably consistent pattern. It analyzes the crucial role played in each case by scientists how have misread or manipulated the evidence; by media and lobbyists who eagerly promote the scare without regard to the facts; and finally by the politicians and officials who come up with an absurdly disproportionate response, leaving us all to pay the price, which may run into billions of dollars. Scared to Death culminates in a chillingly detailed account of the story behind what the authors believe has become the greatest scare of them all: the belief that the world faces disaster through manmade global warming. In a final chapter, the authors take on its proponents such as Al Gore in a devastating critique of the consensus on global warming and its consequences.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A GREAT, well-documented recitation of recent historical Scares July 17, 2008
This book describes and documents (thoroughly) a series of historically recent hysteria incidents in Britain and America, usually caused by "real" events which were immediately blown up out of all proportion to the event itself by people with their own agendas, some in private life, including academia, and some in government, by using incomplete or inaccurate data. The authors posit a pattern that seems to exist for each "scare" that determines the severity of the political and economic consequences. They include, as the title shows, "BSE to Global Warming" as well as many others, such as "satanic child abuse", "salmonella in eggs" etc. This book is well worth reading, regardless of the reader's position on the political spectrum.
 Too Far From Home June 25, 2008
Relevant in that all governments are incompetant and inefficient, but the book is England based. Government names and titles are probably wasted on most Americans and that hurts your ability to follow much of the book. I had hoped for something a little closer to home; the global warming issue is closer due to heavy US involvement, but that's less than a quarter of the book. Well researched and documented. Presents the "other side" of many issues that the stampede misses. A very slow read.
Antidote for Scares June 7, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
"Scared to Death" does a very good job of describing past scares: Salmonella in eggs, Listeria in cheese, Mad Cow Disease, Dioxins in poultry feed, anti-malarial DDT, SARS and bird flu, The Milennium Bug, Ritualized Child Abuse, Auto Speed Limits, Lead in gasoline, Passive Smoking, organophosphorus in pesticides, and The Great Asbestos Scam. This book also summarizes the misinformation and misconceptions surrounding the Global Warming Scare and explains why the Kyoto Protocol is a futile and economically disastrous policy.
 SCARED TO DEATH. BX16 May 15, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Prompt service. Easy to order. Fair price. Product in good order. Prompt
delivery. Book is hard to wade through at the start, but picks up
speed. VERY INFORMATIVE!
Brilliant analysis of scares March 5, 2008
55 out of 58 found this review helpful
Journalist Christopher Booker and former food safety consultant Dr Richard North have written a fascinating book on the rash of scares in the last 20 years. They earlier worked together on a brilliant book on the European Union The great deception.
They study the food scares - salmonella in eggs (1988-9), listeria in cheese, BSE in beef (1996-9) and dioxins in Belgian poultry (1999). Other scares they discuss include the Millennium bug (1999), DDT, the satanic child abuse mania (1987-94), lead, passive smoking, asbestos, SARS, bird flu (2005) (which the World Health Organisation absurdly called `the greatest single health challenge'), organophosphorus, and global warming.
They note that banning DDT has killed two million people every year, because DDT had cut malaria deaths by 95%. The EU backed the ban on DDT.
Organophosphorus, used in sheep dip, was `MAFF-approved', and an HSE leaflet warned of its `cumulative toxicity' leading to `irreversible' damage to the nervous system, akin to ME and Gulf War Syndrome (which also never happened, according to the MoD). The government suppressed the whole story, because it was directly responsible.
A review in the Independent claimed that their chapter on global warming had scarcely any scientific references. It has 117, including important articles in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the Journal of Geophysical Research, Energy and Environment, the International Journal of Climatology, six from Nature and five from Science. The authors expose as exaggerated the claims of climate doom. They point out that historically rising CO2 levels are associated both with rising and falling temperatures and that the overall ice mass of the Antarctic, which has 89.5% of the world's ice, is increasing, as is Greenland's (10%).
They study the roles of scientists, the media, politicians, officials and non-governmental organisations, especially the `animal rights' groups. All these scares, and others from the witch craze to McCarthyism to the war scares over Iraq and Iran, always give the message - trust the government, pay the huge costs of protection. The real message of the scares for us must be - always look at the evidence not the spin, and seek the truth.
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