From Publishers Weekly
Gelbspan, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, offers no less than a call to arms in this treatise on how global warming is a threat and how it can be avoided. Gelbspan expands the argument about global warming: not only is the current U.S. administration to blame, but journalists and activists are as well. Journalists, he says, are culpable because they are minimizing the story; activists, while well-meaning, are so busy trying to form alliances and make compromises that they lose sight of a problem that Gelbspan believes could ultimately compromise the planet. Gelbspan writes clearly, and he argues that Republican members of Congress have latched onto theories of the few scientists who don't believe that global warming is a major problem. He lays out three of the plans being discussed to attack the problem, as well as one of his own (which focuses on changing energy subsidies from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources, funding the transfer of renewable energy sources to developing countries and greatly tightening emission standards). But at times, he adopts an apocalyptic tone—the first sentence of his first chapter contains the words, "global climate change is threatening to spiral out of control"—and that may limit this work to true believers. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Denouncing the oil and coal industries as "criminals against humanity," Gelbspan justifies his use of that label by communicating his sincere belief that human civilization is in mortal peril from global warming. Yet he recognizes that the American public is not as alarmed as he is, so the first half of his work dissects the forces he alleges are keeping Americans in ignorant thrall. They are the fossil fuel lobby, the current Bush administration, and journalism. An ex-member of the Fourth Estate, Gelbspan denounces it for inadequate coverage of global warming, and when covering it, for giving equal weight to the arguments of skeptical scientists. In the second half, after criticizing local environmental gestures and proposed free-market solutions as insufficient, Gelbspan presents his proposals for separating civilization from its hydrocarbon appetite. Key to the program is the establishment of an international organization to fund green technologies, financed by a global tax on international currency transactions. If ExxonMobil is your enemy, Gelbspan is your champion. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
In Boiling Point, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ross Gelbspan argues that, unchecked, climate change will swamp every other issue facing us today. Indeed, what began as an initial response of many institutions-denial and delay-has now grown into a crime against humanity. Gelbspan's previous book, The Heat Is On, exposed the financing of climate-change skeptics by the oil and coal companies. In Boiling Point, he reveals exactly how the fossil fuel industry is directing the Bush administration's energy and climate policies -payback for helping Bush get elected. Even more surprisingly, Gelbspan points a finger at both the media and environmental activists for unwittingly worsening the crisis. Finally, he offers a concrete plan for averting a full-blown climate catastrophe. According to Gelbspan, a proper approach to climate change could solve many other problems in our social, political, and economic lives. It would dramatically reduce our reliance on oil, and with it our exposure to instability in the Middle East. It would create millions of jobs and raise living standards in poor countries whose populations are affected by climate-driven disease epidemics and whose borders are overrun by environmental refugees. It would also expand the global economy and lead to a far wealthier and more peaceful world. A passionate call-to-arms and a thoughtful roadmap for change, Boiling Point reveals what's at stake for our fragile planet

About the Author
Ross Gelbspan was a longtime reporter and editor at the Philadelphia Bulletin, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe, where he won a Pulitzer Prize for a series he conceived and edited. He covered the United Nations Conference on the Environment in Stockholm in 1972 and addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1998. The author of The Heat is On, he lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In 2003 alone, a succession of climatic, economic, and political omens painted a frightening picture of our planet's future: About 35,000 people died in Europe as the result of the brutally hot summer. The acid level of the world's oceans was discovered to have grown more in the last 100 years than it had in the previous 10,000 years. The United Nations reported that climate impacts, which cost the world $60 billion that year, will reach $160 billion a year within this decade and $300 billion a year thereafter. And these are just a few of the many signs that the climate crisis has reached a fever pitch.

In the groundbreaking Boiling Point, Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist Ross Gelbspan argues that, unchecked, climate change will eclipse every other issue facing us today. What began as an initial response of many institutions -- denial and delay -- has grown into a crime against humanity. Gelbspan's previous book, The Heat Is On, exposed the financing of climate-change skeptics by the oil and coal companies. Now, his brilliant reporting exposes the strange and surprising group of players, who -- wittingly or unwittingly -- have worsened the crisis. According to Gelbspan, the fossil fuel industry is directing the Bush administration's energy and climate policies -- payback for helping Bush get elected. In a time when the science has become so robust and the impacts so visible, the White House's actions -- from withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol to manipulating EPA reports -- represent corruption disguised as conservatism. But even more surprisingly, Gelbspan also points a finger at the news media, which have essentially ignored the biggest story at least of this century, and environmental activists, who have acquiesced in compromises that ignore the urgency and magnitude of the problem.

Finally, having gathered ideas from energy company presidents, economists, diplomats, energy policy experts, and his own research, Gelbspan offers a concrete plan for averting a full-blown climate catastrophe. As he demonstrates, a proper approach to climate change could solve many other problems in our social, political, and economic lives. It would dramatically reduce our reliance on oil, and with it our exposure to instability in the Middle East. It would create millions of jobs and raise living standards in poor countries whose populations are affected by climate-driven disease epidemics, whose crops are destroyed by weather extremes, and whose economic desperation underlies the threat of anti-U.S. terrorism. It would ultimately expand the global economy and lead to a far wealthier and more peaceful world. A passionate call-to-arms and a thoughtful roadmap for change, Boiling Point casts a discerning eye on a catastrophe too long overlooked and reveals what's really at stake for our fragile planet.

FROM THE CRITICS

Al Gore - The New York Times

The blend of passionate advocacy and lucid analysis that Ross Gelbspan brings to this, his second book about global warming, is extremely readable because the author's voice is so authentic … Gelbspan's point is a powerful one and is well argued. And he has, in any case, performed a great service by writing an informative book on a difficult but crucial subject.

Publishers Weekly

Gelbspan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, offers no less than a call to arms in this treatise on how global warming is a threat and how it can be avoided. Gelbspan expands the argument about global warming: not only is the current U.S. administration to blame, but journalists and activists are as well. Journalists, he says, are culpable because they are minimizing the story; activists, while well-meaning, are so busy trying to form alliances and make compromises that they lose sight of a problem that Gelbspan believes could ultimately compromise the planet. Gelbspan writes clearly, and he argues that Republican members of Congress have latched onto theories of the few scientists who don't believe that global warming is a major problem. He lays out three of the plans being discussed to attack the problem, as well as one of his own (which focuses on changing energy subsidies from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources, funding the transfer of renewable energy sources to developing countries and greatly tightening emission standards). But at times, he adopts an apocalyptic tone-the first sentence of his first chapter contains the words, "global climate change is threatening to spiral out of control"-and that may limit this work to true believers. Agent, Ike Williams. (Aug.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews