In today's New York Times Book Review section, Al Gore reviews Boiling Point by climate alarmist Ross Gelbspan. Gore cottons to the book's thesis that a sinister cabal is distorting climate science and frustrating sound global warming policies. Andrew Stuttaford comments on the review here.

Update: In 1997, I reviewed Ross Gelbspan's first book of climate alarmism, The Heat Is On in the Washington Times. As one might expect, I was no fan. Here is what I wrote:

There is a massive conspiracy by the oil and coal industries to distort science, ignore the documented risks of global warming, and imperil the future of global civilization, all to make a few extra bucks. At least that is Ross Gelbspan's thesis in The Heat Is On: The High Stakes Battle Over the Earth's Threatened Climate (Addison Wesley, $23, 278 pages), a spirited polemic on the threat of global warming and the need for urgent action.

Mr. Gelbspan's story line is familiar - evil corporate polluters sacrifice humanity for short-term gain - and it is finding a receptive ear in much of the media. His book has villains and heroes, intrigue and secret money trails, interspersed with discussions of the larger scientific and economic questions involved in the environmental debate. And until the author puts his policy prescriptions on the table, the book is convincing - unless you are familiar with the intricacies of the global warming policy debate.

Mr. Gelbspan repeatedly overstates his case, exaggerating and misrepresenting scientific findings. For example, he asserts that "there is no little doubt that, in their gross and aggregate outcomes, the computer models [that predict global warming] are correct." Yet scientific publications are rife with studies and articles demonstrating that the computer models are flawed and their predictive value hotly debated. The author contends that the rising toll of hurricane damage in the United States is evidence of warming-induced climate instability, while most experts concede that it is a function of greater coastal development, not stormier weather.

The balance of the book is filled with ad hominem attacks on global warming skeptics and fanciful discussions of how a government-mandated switch to alternative energy sources will usher in a new economic renaissance of full employment and global prosperity. This is the sort of argument that is guaranteed to get lots of attention in the environmental debate - only it doesn't deserve it.

A final note: Although the book's dust jacket describes the author as a "Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist," the Pulitzer committee does not list Mr. Gelbspan as a prize winner.