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

by Christopher Booker, Richard North

Overview

Modern society has regularly, in recent years, been gripped by a series of headline making "scares" - from mad cow disease to SARS -- which have become one of the most conspicuous and damaging features of our modern world. This book is the first to tell the inside story of each of the major scares of the past two decades, showing how they have followed a remarkably consistent pattern. It analyzes the crucial role played in each case by scientists how have misread or manipulated the evidence; by 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 the price, which may run into billions of dollars. Scared to Death culminates in a chillingly detailed account of the story behind what the authors believe has become the greatest scare of them all: the belief that the world faces disaster through manmade global warming. In a final chapter, the authors take on its proponents such as Al Gore in a devastating critique of the consensus on global warming and its consequences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781408183458
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	01/17/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	512
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Christopher Booker is a noted author, journalist and social commentator. His books include Seven Basic Plots and The Real Global Warming Disaster.
Christopher Booker writes for the Sunday Telegraph and is the bestselling author of The Seven Basic Plots, a hugely popular analysis of why we tell stories. Other books include The Real Global Warming Disaster, The Great Deception and Scared to Death (all published by Bloomsbury Continuum). He has been an author and journalist for nearly 50 years, and was the founding editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye.
Richard North has in recent years won a reputation as one of Britain's
most expert defence analysts, through his Defence of the Realm blog. Formerly a
research director in the European Parliament, North is also a political analyst
through his EU Referendum blog, which examines Britain's place in the world
with particular reference to its membership of the European Union.

He has co-authored four bestselling books with the Sunday Telegraph
columnist Christopher Booker, including Scared To Death: From BSE To
Global Warming, How Scares Are Costing Us The Earth (2007)
and The Great Deception (2005), a comprehensive history of the
European Union. He is the author of Ministry of Defeat (2009).

 

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part One: The Food Scares
Prologue
1. Countdown to an Explosion: How Scares Became A Disaster Waiting To Happen, 1981-8
2. 'Killer Eggs': The Great Salmonella Scare 1988-9
3. Enter the Hygiene Police: Paying The Price 1990-4
4. 'Listeria Hysteria': The Lanark Blue Case 1995
5. Mad Cows and Madder Politicians: The BSE/CJD Scare 1996-9
6. Officials Can Kill: Meat, Cheese and E coli 1998
7. The £1 Billion Blunder: The Belgian Dioxins Debacle 1999
Epilogue to Part One: The Rise of the 'Health and Safety Culture'.
Part Two: The General Scares
Prologue to Part Two: The Millennium Bug.
8. Sledgehammers To Miss Nuts: A Wider Look At The Scare phenomenon (DDT, Nitrate, Vitamin B6, Cockles).
9. The Modern Witch Craze: Ritualised Child Abuse
10. 'Speed Kills: A Safety Scare That Cost Lives.
11. 'We Love Unleaded': How Confusion Over Lead Cost Billions
12. Smoke and Mirrors: How They Turned 'Passive Smoking' Into A Killer
13. 'One Fibre Can Kill': The Great Asbestos Scam.
14. 'Saving The Planet': The New Secular Religion
15. 'Licensed To Kill': The Scare That Never Was
Epilogue: A New Age of Superstition.