Hailed as a "triumph" by The Economist and described as a "welcome heretic" by New Scientist, yet dismissed as a "failure" by Scientific American, few books in recent years have provoked such divergent reactions as Bjorn Lomborg's controversial best-seller The Skeptical Environmentalist.

Surveying a range of major environmental issues that feature prominently in headline news around the world, Lomborg makes the case for environmental optimism and criticises what he calls the "Litany" of environmental pessimism. Adopting a cost-benefit approach he argues that the statistics suggest that we are making real improvements both in our personal well-being and in the environment. This is not to deny that very real problems exist but Lomborg argues that their solution is more likely to lie in economic and technological progress than in the sort of policies advocated by many environmentalist organizations. He further suggests that the poorest of the world - those likely to be hardest hit by global warming - would benefit more from the richer countries honouring pledges on aid, opening up their markets and investing in providing universal access to clean water than they would from the pursuit of aggressive reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.

Make up your own mind where you stand in this debate. Read the book for yourself and follow links on this website to read the major critiques of the book.