CFACT Europe recently released The Climate Hysteria – What’s It All About? The New Nairobi Report on Climate Change, Climate Hoax and Climate Madness by Senior Advisor Michael Limburg

This provocative book examines the latest political developments surrounding the issue of climate change and their relationship to the current state of climate science. It begins by exploring the question of whether there has been any substantial warming outside the range of natural variability (answer: no), continues by examining whether the alleged increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the last 100 years is a principle cause of global warming (answer: no), discusses the possible impact of current climate policies on economics and the demography (answer: dangerous), and concludes by discussing whether global warming would be a more of a bane or benefit if it should be proven true (answer: it depends!).

Other questions the publication addresses include:

• Can humankind realistically prevent further increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide?
• Are efforts to curb greenhouse gases proving to be more costly than beneficial?
• Does the existence anthropogenic greenhouse gases really matter?
• How did the present hysteria emerge?

The impetus for crafting this pamphlet came from the heightened public attention drawn to the global warming issue, largely forged by media hype in Europe, shortly after the 2006 IPCC-Conference in Nairobi. Originally entitled the “Nairobi Report”, and very successfully published in 2007 under the title “The Climate Catastrophe – What Is It All About?”, this pamphlet has since been substantially updated and doubled in size. It attempts to clear a path for those who are, for various reasons, unable to clearly see through the vast jungle of climate literature.

The author is one of the speakers of the European Institute for Climate and Energy, Mr. Michael Limburg from Berlin (Germany), who is also a senior advisor to the European CFACT network, and was an NGO-observer at the UN Climate Conference in Poznan (Poland) in December 2008. In the upcoming weeks, the book will be distributed to policy makers, newsmakers, the business community and students in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

German title:
Michael Limburg:
Klimahysterie – was ist dran?
Der neue Nairobi-Report über Klimawandel, Klimaschwindel und Klimawahn.
ISBN 978-3-940431-10-3. TvR 2009. 158 p. 12,90 EUR.

CFACT is proud to offer its German translation of Alex A. Avery’s The Truth About Organic Foods

Two years ago, the the most talked about book on organic foods in over a decade was issued in English – now, with the support of CFACT Europe, it is available to the 100 Million or so German speaking consumers: Alex Avery’s The Truth About Organic Foods.

If you wonder if organic foods are worth their high price, if the marketing claims of organic advocates are true, or if the organic foods are really more nutritious, safer, and better for the environment – this book will answer these and many other questions on organic or “biological” food.

However, “The Truth About Organic Foods” is not polemic, but a science-based book written for the average consumer that gets past the endless marketing hype. In plain, non-technical language, Avery strips bare organic myths.

Instead of platitudes and promises, Avery gives you the facts – from independent university studies and neutral government sources. He even quotes extensively from organic activists, revealing in their own words the substance of their claims that the benefits of organic farming outweigh those of conventional farming.

German title:
Alex Avery: Die Wahrheit über Bio-Lebensmittel.
Dt. Erstauflage. Aus dem Amerikanischen.
ISBN 978-3-940431-01-1. Jena 2008. 256 S. 24,50 Euro (D, A).

Order direct from CFACT Europe’s publishing partner: bestellung@tvrgroup.de ]]> http://cfact.eu/2008/02/05/the-truth-about-organic-foods/feed/ 0 http://cfact.eu/2008/01/10/cfact-europe-issues-new-book-the-climate-catastrophe-what-is-it-all-about/ http://cfact.eu/2008/01/10/cfact-europe-issues-new-book-the-climate-catastrophe-what-is-it-all-about/#comments Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:41:00 +0000 Holger Thuss http://robbushway.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/cfact-europe-issues-new-book-the-climate-catastrophe-what-is-it-all-about

• Can humankind realistically prevent further increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide?
• Are efforts to curb greenhouse gases proving to be more costly than beneficial?
• Does the existence anthropogenic greenhouse gases really matter?
• How did the present hysteria emerge?

With 150.000 copies and about twice as many readers every day, the Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung is not only the largest Swiss newspaper, but also the most respected daily paper among the German-speaking Europeans. Under the headline “Eco-imperialism at the expense of the poor,” it also was the first major print media that informed its readers of CFACT’s newly published German edition of Paul Driessen’s Eco-imperialism: Green Power Black Death on September 11.

According to the reviewer, Detmar Doering of the German Liberal Institute, it is “fully comprehensible” that “humans care for an environment worth living and want it protected.” However, that should be a reason to challenge environmentalism, because apparently “its cultural hegemony in the public sphere corrupts” this movement. “Many scenarios by which environmentalists impress the (western) public are based on bogus science, e.g. the ‘climate catastrophe,’ as Driessen can meticulously demonstrate. Justified concerns for the environment,” the review concludes, “must not be directed against the economic perspectives of the world’s poor. It is a pity that only few have the courage to say it that way.”

This might have been the reason that sociology professor Dr. Joseph Huber of the University of Halle included Eco-imperialism in the recommended reading list for his course on “The global system and sustainable development.” On December 6, today, the book was discussed by his students.

Christian Bartsch of Junge Freiheit (“Young Freedom”), a conservative weekly with 30,000 readers from Berlin, reviewed the book on October 6, and predicted the new Driessen book “will be a shock for many” because of its “appalling” facts about the global activities of self-appointed guardians of the environment. According to Bartsch, modern environmentalists act like medicine men or shamans in prehistoric times: Both “discovered fear as the best means to make their sheep compliant.” In both cases it is about them silencing “evil demons which were invented by themselves” and presenting environmentalist shamans as the “keepers of public morals and ethics.”

On October 21, as well Dirk Maxeiner, one of Germany’s most renowned environment writers, reviewed Eco-imperialism in Die Welt. With some 800,000 readers, the paper is one of Germany’s major national dailies. Its literary supplement “Die literarische Welt” (“World of Literature”), where the article appeared, represents the great humanistic journalistic tradition of the 1920s. Maxeiner not only mentioned the devastating consequences of extreme environmentalism but also focused on the dangerous “ethical standards” of several “green” investment funds: “From Nike to Reebok, from BP to Shell, Paul Driessen’s book is full of examples of opportunistic companies practicing a fatal appeasement policy toward noisy lobby groups in rich countries, at the expense of the poor. For managers and entrepreneurs this book is a must-read, because it could also bear the title ‘Corporate palookas in green pinstripe suits.’”

Other reviews of Eco-imperialism: Green policies with lethal consequences – this is the book title retranslated from German – appeared in Eigentuemlich Frei (“Peculiarly Free”), Neue Nachricht (“Current News”), and NOVO – Germany’s most distinguished libertarian periodicals, in Civis, a quarterly loosely affiliated with Chancellor Merkel’s ruling Christian-Democrat party, and the Chemische Rundschau (“Chemical Review”), a specialized magazine for chemists from Switzerland. Altogether, reviews of CFACT Europe’s most important 2006-publication reached more than 1.1 million readers.

On October 11, CFACT Europe’s Executive Director Dr. Holger Thuss presented Edgar Gaertner’s new “Eco-Nihilism. A Critique of Political Ecology” (Öko-Nihilismus. Eine Kritik der Politischen Ökologie) at a private reception in the Brussels Renaissance Hotel.

The many invited guests, mainly from the media, like-minded think tanks and assistants of MEPs, were able to listen to some introductory remarks by author Edgar Gaertner. There was also an opportunity to purchase sigend copies of the new book that was recently published with the support of CFACT Europe.

“The example of Edgar Gaertner’s book shows that the German readers are waiting for books promoting a more honest approach towards the environment” says Dr Holger Thuss, Executive Director of CFACT Europe. “We at CFACT Europe are very happy about that.”

The best selling lists of BOD are released every Monday. There are two separate categories, one for fictional and one for non-fictional books. The Hamburg-based BOD GmbH is Europe’s largest print-on-demand company. View the chart (German).

Every Monday, Deutschlandfunk (DLF), Germany’s national information radio station rewiews what it considers the nation’s most important political literature. On June 16, between Czech President Vaclav Havel’s autobiography, and a book by Alice Schwarzer (Germany’s most prominent feminist) Edgar Gaertner’s “Eco-nihilism” was presented and reviewed for the listeners.

Reviewer Gunnar Sohn presented “a voice of a skillful observer” that is warning “scientists, business leaders and politicians of shortsighted reactions, blind actionism and policies with placebo effects”. The reviewer emphasized Gaertner’s point that the conventional wisdom of political ecology is fact-resistant and a dead-end-road.

Deutschlandfunk is Germany’s only national public talk radio. It is based in Cologne and began transmissions in 1962.

Link (German):
http://www.dradio.de/dlf/ sendungen/politischeliteratur/648211/

Edgar Gaertner

One of Austria’s largest daily’s commemorated Earth Day with an extensive review of Edgar Gaertner’s new Öko-Nihilismus: Eine Kritik der Politischen Ökologie (Eco-nihilism: A Critique of Political Ecology).   The review appeared in The Linz-based “Oberösterreichische Nachrichten” (OÖN) , which also interviewed the author.    The book was published with support from CFACT Europe.

The reviewer emphasized Mr. Gaertner’s belief that the debate over climate change and eco-taxes is best characterized as “class struggle from above”. In doing so, the author who is director of the environment forum of the Brussels think tank “Centre for the New Europe”, is clearly swimming “against the green mainstream.” OON also mentions Gaertner’s argument that humans are powerless to address the largely naturally induced climate change they are confronted with, and that it is not at all decided that that carbon emissions are responsible for it, much less that mankind has to deal with any of its alleged fatal consequences.

In the interview Mr. Gaertner also pointed out that the increasing use of “ecologistic and apocalyptic doom-and-gloom-scenarios” resemble a religious fervor that is prohibiting dissent. Their prescriptions, he claims, seek to impose a one-size-fits-all regulatory framework to address global environmental concerns. Further, Mr. Gaertner notes that those championing alarmist scenarios are often “self-appointed climate researchers” who are placing too much weight on so-called “consensus.” “But consensus is no criteria for science because it is an obstacle for pluralism in the debate, he maintains, and “the ultimate impact of the CO2 debate may well mean that we in Germany will soon import more nuclear energy”.

With its printed edition of 128,500 copies, the prominent Austrian daily (English title “Upper-Austrian News”, which was established in 1945 under US-license) will allow Gaertner’s book to reach out to 371,000 of its readers. The newspaper also belongs to the trustees of “Austria Presse Agentur” (APA), the national Austrian press agency.

Also of note, a few days before OÖN’s coverage, www.liberty.li also posted an entire chapter of “Eco-Nihilism” on its website. www.liberty.li is a project of the Austrian think tank “Instut für Wertewirtschaft” (Institute for a Value-based Economy), and is in its own words the “largest German language platform for freedom and responsibility.”

links (in German):

review: http://www.nachrichten.at/wirtschaft/568731?PHPSESSID=cc13f7df5677c778601c6aaf93f120a0

interview: http://www.oon.at/wirtschaft/568754?PHPSESSID=ec143b3cda25684e8e80d3f8658ff30f

chapter:http://de.liberty.li/magazine/?id=4364

CFACT Europe’s German edition of Paul Driessen’s Eco-imperialism: Green Power – Black Death received a lengthy review in Die Idee, published by the Junge Schweizerische Volkspartei [JSVP] (Young Swiss People’s Party).  CFACT Europe is proud to join the political debate in one of the world’s oldest democracies.

The JSVP has approximately 5.800 members and is the youth wing of the Schweizerische Volkspartie [SVP] (Swiss People’s Party), Switzerland’s largest political party (ca. 85.000 members, 26,6 % or 56 of 200 seats in the lower house of parliament). The SVP is strongest in German-speaking areas of Switzerland and is led by Mr. Ueli Maurer. It is a member of the government coalition and has two members of the Swiss Federal Council.

Paul Driessen is a senior policy advisor to CFACT.  Eco-Imperialism Home.

The term nihilism was coined by French writer Albert Camus and refers to people who believe in things that do not exist. Most modern-day nihilists also consider certain policies more important than freedom and dignity, and according to Gaerter there are strong nihilist tendencies among many of today’s environmentalists.

Eco-nihilism chronicles how, after the successful ending of serious ecological threats such as water and air pollution, environmental activism soon replaced what was previously known as environmentalism in general. This new activist form of environmentalism slowly began to embrace policies that promoted the “precautionary principle,” a line of reasoning that chased after risks (no matter how small) and took up fights against hypothetical future threats (no matter how remote). The reason for this new turn in environmental thought was that some activists became addicted to the political successes they enjoyed advancing their environmental policies and wanted to see them continue.

Gaertner explains how the idea of precautionary principle dates back to Cold War era. At that time it was used to prop up policies and investments that were perhaps inefficient, but they were justified to help the free West survive a dangerous Soviet threat. Nowadays this logic is mis-applied by eco-nihilists to hypothetical dangers, and because it carries costs and risks that can harm humanity, the world faces a strong threat from the use of this rigorously stringent principle.

Gaertner also maintains in his book that certain activists appear to care more about imposing their solutions to hypothetical environmental threats, such as global warming, than the very real problems being fostered through implementation of their agenda (such as increased energy and food prices on the poor). Such approaches undertaken by nihilists ultimately deteriorate the conditions for innovation, economic growth and new technologies which are important for modern society to advance.

Edgar L. Gaertner: Oeko-Nihilismus. Eine Kritik der Politischen Ökologie. ISBN 978-3-00-020598-9. 284p. Euro 24,50.  Available from CFACT Europe.