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Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth

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Authors: Christopher Booker, Richard North
Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
Category: Book

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Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

23 reviews
Sales Rank: 2980

Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.8

ISBN: 0826486142
Dewey Decimal Number: 306
EAN: 9780826486141
ASIN: 0826486142

Publication Date: November 10, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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Also Available In:

•	Paperback - Scared to Death
•	Paperback - Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming - Why Scares Are Costing Us the Earth

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Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...

2 out of 5 stars

Are we following the herd on this one? August 21, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful

I had high hopes for this one, but having dug behind some of the statistics it seems that the authors are also guilty of pushing scare stories. For example, data on salmonella infections/deaths is presented on page 45. The authors make the point that the number of deaths at the time of the crisis is less than in 1982. What is not stated is that 1982 appears to be something of an aberration, the highpoint of some 30 years data (data available from Hansard - Written Answers).
In other places the narrative is overly dramatic. A Professor, criticised in the book, is said to have rushed to an outbreak. How can the urgency be proved? Were speeding tickets incurred? We are not told.
It's still an interesting subject, but read with some caution.

5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating July 23, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Really fascinating and persuasive book describing the real stories behind many scares such as BSE, salmonella, asbestos and now global warming... Cant recommend it enough for people who want a deeper understanding about the realities of the world.

5 out of 5 stars

POSSIBLY THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK WRITTEN IN THE LAST 100 YEARS July 13, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

This book should be compulsory reading for every politician, national or local, and every public servant. It is a horrifying book that describes in accurate detail how those in authority lie, deceive and cheat the very people who vote them into power. The sheer amount of money that has been squandered in this way would have been enough to feed everyone on this planet for the next hundred years!

5 out of 5 stars

Top Trump July 8, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Brilliant. This is the most direct antidote to the self-important piffle peddled by Al Gore. It is a book that asks it's readers to do an old fashioned, British thing; think for yourself. It tells you about things that are presented by government and others as facts, but are anything but. It also includes the scandalous story of the government poisoning farmers and then covering it up. A real scare rather than a manufactured one. Time after time we are told to be afraid merely to support some political agenda, Booker and North lift the lid a little on the cockroaches.

5 out of 5 stars

Not so much a 'wake-up call 'as the last trumpet June 6, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is the most serious book I have ever read - and I am over 70 and relatively well-educated and informed. The Epilogue - and especially the third from final paragraph - should be read, marked, learned and inwardly digested by all thinking people from sixth-formers to geriatrics like me. If I am left with one thought after reading this meticulously documented catalogue of ignorant and disgraceful behaviour, it is how badly our UK legislators and officials have performed over the past 30-40 years and how little they deserve, or have deserved, their salaries, expenses and pensions. All these things have happened on their watch - a watch we relied on them to keep faithfully and conscientously. Perhaps in this story lies the real reason why we have, maybe unconsciously until now, come to despise and mistrust them all.