Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Have Fueled the Climate Crisis--and What We Can Do to Avert Disaster.

ROSS GELBSPAN

BOILING POINT: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Have Fueled the Climate Crisis--and What We Can Do to Avert Disaster

AS Gelbspan reports, the 1990s was the hottest decade in the past 1,000 years. And, the heat continues. Just last summer, 35,000 people died in Europe as a result of a record-setting heat wave. The United Nations estimates the cost of such natural disasters to be $60 billion a year, a figure that could nearly triple within the decade. Gelbspan, a Pulitzer prize winner, indicts the government, apathetic media, and even environmentalists for not doing enough about this climate crisis. He suggests that fossil fuel industries are paying off politicians and some scientists in order to maintain the status quo. On the other hand, the author consolidates several plans from economists and energy-policy officials into an overall approach to shifting the industrialized world away from reliance on fossil fuels. His plan has bold goals, from stabilizing world economies to reducing poverty to fostering world peace. Basic, 2004, 254 p., hardcover, $22.00.