Product Description

Irreverent and entertaining, DOWN TO EARTH is filled with fact about global warming and its disastrous consequences, loads of photos and illustrations, as well as suggestions for how kids can help combat global warming in their homes, schools, and communities. Engagingly designed, DOWN TO EARTH will educate and empower, leaving readers with the knowledge they need to understand this problem and a sense of hope to inspire them into action.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #95199 in Books
• Brand: Orchard Books
• Published on: 2007-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780439024945
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
LAURIE DAVID is devoted to stopping global warming. She founded the Stop Global Warming Virtual March and has produced several projects that aim to bring global warming to public attention, including the TBS Earth to America! comedy special, the HBO documentary Too Hot Not to Handle, and Al GoreÂ’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. She was voted GlamourÂ’s Woman of the Year for 2006. Laurie lives with her husband and their two daughters in Los Angeles, California.

Customer Reviews

Even the reviews are making us think!
I can't help noticing that reviews of this book mirror the controversy surrounding this topic. And that's a good thing. (I also can't help noticing what feels like a coordinated attack based on a single technical error, as if that discredited the fundamental science behind this book's premise, which no serious scientist doubts.) In my household, this wonderfully written, funny, accessible and very important book has led to lots of healthy discussions about our world -- and our own household. Suddenly my kids -- 10 and 7 -- are talking and thinking about electricity and water usage, recycling, gas mileage, thermostat settings, and even the great outdoors itself, in ways they never did before. I'm glad this book has people talking, because, as the book points out, the solutions to this problem will make us stronger as a people, and there's much more danger in doing -- or saying -- nothing.

Incorrect Critical Charts
Readers should be aware that the the first editions of this book contain a chart (page 18 ) of the past 650,000 years that shows that CO2 emissions rose BEFORE global temperatures. In fact, the chart is reversed - CO2 emissions did rise, but only hundreds (in some cases thousands) of years AFTER temperature rises. For some reason the chart lines are backwards.

Scholastic is planning to issue a revised version with an updated chart, but there will be no revision to the text of the book, which references and explains the chart. I don't know that most kids will notice that the chart does not support the argument, but an important subject like this should be accurate in all details.

With such inaccuracies I do not recommend the book. Explain global warming to your children yourself - and be sure and use accurate information!

To make your kid an eco-activist nagger
This is a kid's version of a typical global warming hysteria book.

If you do not believe in it (or even know there is another side), you probably will not want this for your kid.

Even if you believe in the IPCC type worries, you should be aware this has a section designed to encourage the kids to nag you about reducing your carbon footprint. Some parents who agree there is a problem still may not want this book just to avoid the nagging.

The books has all of the usual statements abut global warming and leaves out the other side, emphasizing the negative. There is a statement abut increased poison ivy and hay fever but they somehow fail to mention that increased carbon dioxide has been shown repeatedly in green house experiments and open field experiments to promote growth of virtually all plants. For instance, an open field experiment (pumping the gas into a small forest plot)showed increased tree growth, with an incidental observation that the poison ivy also grew more. This book mentions the poison ivy, but fails to note the major result, which was the increased tree growth. If most plants growth more, there probably will be more pollen and hence more hay fever, but it also means food crops gow much better and less starvation, but there is no mention of this.

Increased heat deaths if the globe if warmer are likely (especially if in an effort to prevent warming energy prices have been raised so fewer can afford air conditioning,but there is no mention of the well established fact that death rates increase every winter (flu season) and warmer winters would reduce these, and by far more than any summer increase in deaths.