Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7475 in Books
• Brand: Sheila Shine
• Published on: 2006-05-26
• Released on: 2006-05-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 328 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The much-discussed and highly regarded 2006 book and film by Gore arrives on audio two years later. While the material and central focus on global warming is clearly the most important aspect of the book, Beau Bridges is the only truly captivating reader here. Cynthia Nixon and Blair Underwood tend to drone on in monotone voices that take some of the impact out of Gore's findings. Bridges, however, reads with a stern and commanding tone that grips readers from the very start, never failing to relate the information with sheer honesty and true grit. As a whole, the audio is still as important and poignant as the original, and though certain aspects have been left out, the listener is still met with the same urgency to act. A Rodale paperback.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Blair Underwood is an author and award-winning actor, director, and producer. He lives in Los Angeles, California. Visit his website at www.BlairUnderwood.com

From AudioFile
In this succinct abridgment of Gore's treatise on global warming, we learn what greenhouse gasses are, how long scientists have been measuring them, what they do, and what we can do to reduce them. The U.S. government has not pushed reforms for reasons of politics and convenience, but Gore maintains that individuals can help by buying energy-saving light bulbs and hybrid vehicles and supporting wind power. Beau Bridges reads the autobiographical parts well, particularly the sensitive section on Gore's sister Nancy's death from lung cancer. But one is aware that Bridges's voice is not the former Vice President's. Nixon and Underwood (familiar TV actors) do a good sell job with the remaining sections. All of this is well organized and certainly worth heeding. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Hyperventilation
Hyperventilation over a non problem. Not a scholarly or unbiased look at the issue. Fails to provide any evidence of how global warming may prevent cold weather related deaths and improve agricultural production. This book describes a sham scary scenario as a pretext for controlling our lives.

This is a book that every American should read!
Although i was well aware of global warming, the scientific evidence and the real statistics of the global warming from this book definitely raised my awareness even more. I mainly bought this book because i am very interested from saving the earth from the global warming. This book is informative and contains many pictures that reveal impact of the global warming in the world. This book is worth of every penny and worth of time to read it.

An emotion-driven, picture book, with no footnotes
As close to everyone knows, this is Al Gore's book which allegedly proves that, because of mankind's increased carbon emissions, therefore the global climate is warming and therefore we will suffer from a wide variety of catastrophic problems unless we act to reverse the situation. Gore actually argues in this book that, unless we radically decrease CO2 emissions, the oceans will rise 20 feet, most of Florida and New York City will be drowned -- he provides very real looking computer-generated maps of these predictions -- there will be many more hurricanes and, in general, the world as we know it will come to an end.

It is possible that Gore's basic thesis is correct. Our climate might be warming from CO2 emissions. There is no way to assess the value of his thesis from this book, however. This is a beautifully illustrated picture book. It is filled with gorgeous photographs. It has very little text. On the few occasions when Gore actually puts more than 50 words in a row it is generally to tell some heart-wrenching anecdote such as why the near-death of his son made him passionate about global warming. The book has no footnotes, and no connected argument. It is, to be blunt about, a coffee-table book, not a scientific book.

I appreciate that Gore's defenders will disagree. After all, the pictures show facts don't they? We can see, from the pictures, that there is less ice on Mt. Kilamanjero. We can see that many glaciers have retreated in the last century. We can even see the photos showing how much of Florida would be submerged, if the sea rose 20 feet, which it would, if all of the ice in Greenland melted.

Yes, the pictures give isolated facts. But science is not done with pictures, because one can always take a few facts out of context to prove anything. You do not do science with a few photos. You do science with hard data, taken from as many sources as possible. You do science by looking at the whole picture, or as much as you can. You also do science by seriously addressing critics and alternative theories. I am sorry, Al, but this book is much closer to a rock video than it is to a scientific argument. It relies on pictures, emotions and wild claims. That does not prove that it is wrong. You can not , however, rationally assess the truth or falsity of the statements with Gore's presentation.

Al thinks we are stupid. He does not think we will read through serious science. He thinks we need lots of pictures or we just won't get it.