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Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth
From salmonella in eggs to BSE, from the Millennium Bug to bird ‘flu, from DDT to passive smoking, from asbestos to global warming, ‘scares' have become one of the most conspicuous and damaging features of our modern world. This book for the first time tells the inside story of each of the major scares of the past two decades, showing how they have followed a remarkably consistent pattern.
It analyses the crucial role played in each case by scientists who have misread or manipulated the evidence; by the 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 a colossal price, which may run into billions or even hundreds of billions of pounds.
The book culminates in a chillingly detailed account of the story behind what it shows has become the greatest scare of them the belief that the world faces disaster through man-made global warming. In an epilogue the authors compare our credulity in falling for scares to mass-hysterias of previous ages such as the post-mediaeval ‘witch craze', describing our time as a ‘new age of superstition'.
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It analyses the crucial role played in each case by scientists who have misread or manipulated the evidence; by the 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 a colossal price, which may run into billions or even hundreds of billions of pounds.
The book culminates in a chillingly detailed account of the story behind what it shows has become the greatest scare of them the belief that the world faces disaster through man-made global warming. In an epilogue the authors compare our credulity in falling for scares to mass-hysterias of previous ages such as the post-mediaeval ‘witch craze', describing our time as a ‘new age of superstition'.
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- GenresNonfictionPolitics
512 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2006
9 people are currently reading
133 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Booker
30 books41 followersChristopher John Penrice Booker is an English journalist and author.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 20, 2012
This book discusses scare stories from the last few decades, plots their courses from a real issue to a scare, and describes the main proponents: scientists, pressure groups, the media and the government.
The authors are big on the detail and this can be a chore to wade through. Also they clearly have an axe to grind, particularly in the food health scares, and specifically a certain Professor Lacey. I'd like to hear his side of the story.
However, as one-sided as some of the chapters were, the salient points made the book worth the read:
- the abuse of scientific studies and reports, the way non-scientists kowtow to anyone in a labcoat, regardless of their area of expertise, the way scientists (and the 4 groups above) abuse that trust.
- the theme that in each of the scares the way the government reacted defined whether the issue turned into a scare.
- the big current scare, that being global warming, how it's the biggest scare we've had, how it's become the orthodoxy over recent years.
Interestingly the authors expanded on an idea I've had for a long time, that being that the global warming issue has become more like a religion: it's a battle against good and evil, the evil being big corporations, and of course america; the battle against evil in ourselves, i.e. leaving the telly on standby or whatever; the idea of an approaching Armageddon; the fact that anyone who questions the issue is considered heretical, a social outcast....
The epilogue is interesting, and I'd like to see some more in depth discussion of the idea that, in a western society that is becoming more secular, we need something to replace a religion, and scares play into that need.
The authors are big on the detail and this can be a chore to wade through. Also they clearly have an axe to grind, particularly in the food health scares, and specifically a certain Professor Lacey. I'd like to hear his side of the story.
However, as one-sided as some of the chapters were, the salient points made the book worth the read:
- the abuse of scientific studies and reports, the way non-scientists kowtow to anyone in a labcoat, regardless of their area of expertise, the way scientists (and the 4 groups above) abuse that trust.
- the theme that in each of the scares the way the government reacted defined whether the issue turned into a scare.
- the big current scare, that being global warming, how it's the biggest scare we've had, how it's become the orthodoxy over recent years.
Interestingly the authors expanded on an idea I've had for a long time, that being that the global warming issue has become more like a religion: it's a battle against good and evil, the evil being big corporations, and of course america; the battle against evil in ourselves, i.e. leaving the telly on standby or whatever; the idea of an approaching Armageddon; the fact that anyone who questions the issue is considered heretical, a social outcast....
The epilogue is interesting, and I'd like to see some more in depth discussion of the idea that, in a western society that is becoming more secular, we need something to replace a religion, and scares play into that need.
March 22, 2015
Warning ! Don't read this book if you are easy to anger. Especially if you are already contemptuous of 'Authority' and it's abuse of power.
This book is almost five hundred pages of endless examples of Incompetence, Corruption, Ignorance, Lies, Faulty Science, and the waste of our money on an eye watering scale. From Salmonella, BSE, Child Abuse, Bird Flu, Asbestos, Global Warming and more. The authors' research is often astonishing. If someone sneezed at 15.25 on a Tuesday in 1987, these authors have dug out the evidence.
This is a double edged sword though. I found myself sometimes getting 'statistic blindness' and speed reading through some pages. But the book never lost it's grip - or it's power to anger.
Every politician, journalist & scientist should be made to read this book as a warning of how power corrupts along with the financial and human consequences. Often decades down the line.
Public faith in the 'Establishment' and those we trust to run our countries is probably at an all time low. Sadly, this book confirms that our lack of faith is well founded.
This book is almost five hundred pages of endless examples of Incompetence, Corruption, Ignorance, Lies, Faulty Science, and the waste of our money on an eye watering scale. From Salmonella, BSE, Child Abuse, Bird Flu, Asbestos, Global Warming and more. The authors' research is often astonishing. If someone sneezed at 15.25 on a Tuesday in 1987, these authors have dug out the evidence.
This is a double edged sword though. I found myself sometimes getting 'statistic blindness' and speed reading through some pages. But the book never lost it's grip - or it's power to anger.
Every politician, journalist & scientist should be made to read this book as a warning of how power corrupts along with the financial and human consequences. Often decades down the line.
Public faith in the 'Establishment' and those we trust to run our countries is probably at an all time low. Sadly, this book confirms that our lack of faith is well founded.
May 21, 2020
Christopher Booker was a national treasure not because he had a name that was oddly similar to my own, but because he was a perennially stroppy journalist who was relentless in pursuing the truth, whether it be about Brexit, Europe or governmental incompetence. Great man. This book illuminating past scares and cock-ups, often by "scientists" and "modellers", has become amazingly relevant in the wake of the Covid-19 virus, and the last chapter - on how UK authorities of all political persuasions covered up the deaths of farm workers from organophosphates - is a particular eye-opener. Scares are started in pursuit of a political agenda - often a centralizing one, that will remove our liberties and ruin our economy - and helped along by bad journalists who, unlike Booker, don't mistrust their sources. This is one of those rare books that reveal the way the world really works, or rather malfunctions. It doesn't make for comfortable reading. I would recommend it strongly, but it's probably not for anyone with anger management issues.
November 11, 2021
Brilliant analysis of the many "scares" that have happened between the 1980 and the mid noughties when it was written. As brilliant as it is, it is hugely depressing to see how our politicians, elites and media respond to whatever scare happens: how they get things wrong, allow politics to override science, stand by when lives are ruined for no good reason and waste huge sums of our money in fighting the wrong battles. Although written about 15 years ago there are many similarities between what has repeatedly happened in the past and what has happened with Covid and is currently happening with climate change (which is covered in one of the final chapters). Highly recommended.
December 20, 2021
Find a scare, a couple of politicians to push it, some scientists to back you up, the media to frighten the public witless with tales of terrible sufferings, and finally demonise anyone that disagrees with the official narrative as a dangerous lunatic and you have the perfect scare. Ring any bells?.
November 30, 2012
I bought this hoping to learn more about stuff like the underlying causes of these "scares", how to differentiate between real and spurious ones, and the role of the media (the Daily Mail for example is renown for its nightmare health scares). I was disappointed on all counts. When I read that it's the BBC, not the tabloids, that are most to blame, I suspect either some kind of agenda, or a total lack of research. The combination of cut and paste description and shallow generalisation give it, to be generous, limited authority (one authority cited is Wogan). Don't bother; I wish I hadn't.
September 14, 2011
At first I was sceptical, but the authors presented some pretty good arguments. Give it a chance and read a couple of chapters, even if you don't agree with them about the issues.
Most surprising book for me this year.
Most surprising book for me this year.
October 4, 2016
Thoroughly enjoyed Booker's list of fake scares.
This book made me shrug during the H1N1 and Mexican flu epidemics. Most epidemics are media-made nonsense, Booker writes down the cold facts and cynical motivations behind the scares.
This book made me shrug during the H1N1 and Mexican flu epidemics. Most epidemics are media-made nonsense, Booker writes down the cold facts and cynical motivations behind the scares.
April 14, 2012
Best book ever. If you only read one last book in your life.....
Read
October 22, 2014e61f1741-3909-4b01-927e-214f50c0f61f
April 1, 2017
Book by an investigative journalist and Food safety expert setting out a series of scares and tracing elements common to each one (including them often starting with a genuine problem, which is then widened into an issue which could be universal but has huge uncertainty, a battle between “blockers” in industry and government and “pushers” in media and science, a sudden shift to the pushers as governments panic in response to public pressure and some companies see opportunities in adaptation responses such as alternate products, a resulting disproportionate response; the vilification of any sceptics).
Examples are: salmonella; blue cheese listeria; DDT; Belgian dioxins; BSE; general rise of food inspectors; Y2K; ritualised child abuse; speed cameras; unleaded petrol; passive smoking
They finish with two examples of particular interest to insurers: asbestos (where they claim the extension of the genuine scare over blue and brown asbestos to white asbestos, in connection with an industry of lawyers and asbestos removers has led to massive financial losses) and global warming (where they predictably take a contrarian view and claim it has all of the same features as previous scares including global cooling).
Much of what they say is plausible – they are particularly good at exposing the recurrent patterns in scares and the irony of consumer groups and trade unions fighting on the same side as greedy corporations and lawyers and don’t take part in simple euro bashing (interestingly their first collaboration was showing how UK safety authorities often hid behind falsely claiming something was a EU regulation).
Further in the global warming chapter they appear to make the very same mistakes they castigate in others in previous chapter – of basing their views on a small body of scientific work of dubious provenance as well as basing their views on arguments which were disowned some time back by the very people who first raised them.
Examples are: salmonella; blue cheese listeria; DDT; Belgian dioxins; BSE; general rise of food inspectors; Y2K; ritualised child abuse; speed cameras; unleaded petrol; passive smoking
They finish with two examples of particular interest to insurers: asbestos (where they claim the extension of the genuine scare over blue and brown asbestos to white asbestos, in connection with an industry of lawyers and asbestos removers has led to massive financial losses) and global warming (where they predictably take a contrarian view and claim it has all of the same features as previous scares including global cooling).
Much of what they say is plausible – they are particularly good at exposing the recurrent patterns in scares and the irony of consumer groups and trade unions fighting on the same side as greedy corporations and lawyers and don’t take part in simple euro bashing (interestingly their first collaboration was showing how UK safety authorities often hid behind falsely claiming something was a EU regulation).
Further in the global warming chapter they appear to make the very same mistakes they castigate in others in previous chapter – of basing their views on a small body of scientific work of dubious provenance as well as basing their views on arguments which were disowned some time back by the very people who first raised them.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews