Review

Science Under Siege

This is a compelling critique of the broad network of environmentalism – the political activists, the compliant media, the demagogic government officials, the craven businessment. Fumento shows how this movement violates all principles of sound science in pursuit of a political agenda.

But the overriding value of Science Under Siege lies not in its refutations of environmentalists’ false claims, but in its conceptual analysis of their false methodology..

A chapter on the invalid use of mice as proxies for men is one of the highlights of this book. For instance, the daily dose of Alar that caused tumors in mice was over 260,000 times higher than the amount ingested by human beings. The author benevolently predicts that someday this accepted practice "will be literally laughed at, in the same way we now laugh at witch-doctoring and entrail-reading." As protection against the next wave of scare-mongering, Fumento offers several chapters on how to detect typical fallacies, including the claim that statistical associations imply causal relationships. .

He says: "The battle against Alar was merely a small part of a larger war against pesticides in general, which is a small part of the war against man-made chemicals in general, which is a small part of a war against technology in general. And make no mistake, the assailants, the besiegers of science, will settle for nothing short of total victory." .

Read-and publicize-this book if you wish to help deny them that victory. .

(448 pages)

This review is courtesy of and copyright © by the Ayn Rand Bookstore.

Books

• Science Under Siege by Michael Fumento.