The madhouse effect : how climate change denial is threatening our planet, destroying our politics, and driving us crazy / Michael E. Mann and Tom Toles.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The award-winning climate scientist Michael E. Mann and the Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Tom Toles have been on the front lines of the fight against climate denialism for most of their careers. They have witnessed the manipulation of the media by business and political interests and the unconscionable play to partisanship on issues that affect the well-being of billions. The lessons they have learned have been invaluable, inspiring this brilliant, colorful escape hatch from the madhouse of the climate wars.

The Madhouse Effect portrays the intellectual pretzels into which denialists must twist logic to explain away the clear evidence that human activity has changed Earth's climate. Toles's cartoons collapse counter-scientific strategies into their biased components, helping readers see how to best strike at these fallacies. Mann's expert skills at science communication aim to restore sanity to a debate that continues to rage against widely acknowledged scientific consensus. The synergy of these two climate science crusaders enlivens the gloom and doom of so many climate-themed books--and may even convert die-hard doubters to the side of sound science.

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CHOICE Review

Mann (Penn State Univ.) is a well-known climatologist who specializes in the field of climate change. Toles is a Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist with biting wit. The two have teamed up to produce a timely, slim (150 pages of text), illustrated volume that attacks those who deny facts and implications of anthropogenic climate change. Scientists have reached the consensus that humans are radically changing climate--the data and analyses have been thoroughly tested--and readers are presented with this information. The data and analyses are referenced in further detail so readers can methodically comprehend the issue. The potential for disastrous consequences (e.g., losing the world's coastal infrastructure, billions of refugees, conflict over increasingly scarce resources) is discussed. The work then explores US climate change denial, referencing the tobacco industry's "disinformation campaign" to delay public recognition of tobacco's health risks. The fossil fuel industry is mirroring this exact approach with climate change. The authors also contend that lavish contributions by the industry created a "Republican war on science"--essentially corrupting a political party. Delay in mitigating this threat (caused by Republican obstruction) may have catastrophic consequences. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. --Malcolm K. Cleaveland, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville