Global warming is a premise, not something to prove for this book. Manmadeness is demonstrated. Strategies for a partial solution, only as far as US is concerned, are dicussed.

Main thesis is the Faustian deal character of our coal burning habits. While burning wood is even worse in terms of CO2 output, the effect can be neutralized by reforestation. Not so with coal. What took millions of years to build is consumed in a mere few hundreds of years. The depletion of resources is not even the worst aspect of this process, worse is the interference in and reinforcement of climatic trends, which are in themselves dramatic enough when left alone. Looking at world pollution development I would go so far to say that it does not even matter very much whether man influences climate. The other negative impacts of pollution are bad enough to require rethinking.

The inclusion of nuclear power in the arsenal for the future seems hardly avoidable, but, as another reviewer said, it is replacing one Faustian deal with another.

While the book is hardly original, it is definitely worth reading. I am not entirely happy with all aspects of its presentation. For instance some of the illustrations are rather odd (e.g. the photo of the mining activist?) and the graphs are not all very professional. I also think that the text components are not that well balanced. These are minor irritations though and don't require a star reduction.

I wish Mr.Sweet could make an intelligent proposal for China, which is my personal main concern. He describes the dilemmas well: no realistic alternative to large scale long term coal burning.

Puzzling among the comments: there still seem to be quite a few believers in the market's ability to cure these problems. This has been a source of wonder to me since the first study of the Club of Rome came out.

Thanks to Asterix Wikman and Obelix Bruno for directing me to this book! (Their summary of the book is recommendable!)

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