Jews love to argue (hands up those who said “No they don’t”), and the argument is often entertaining to behold. So when two lively Jewish minds lock horns over one of the great debates of the day, it is worth paying attention. Spice is added when the clash echoes across the Atlantic, as it does in the conflicting opinions on global warming of ex-Chancellor Nigel Lawson and American economist and 2007 Reith lecturer Jeffrey Sachs. Lord Lawson argues that the current siren calls on the subject are misguided, that we are in the grip of hype rather than science, and that the vast “remedies” pose more dangers than the climate. These points are forcefully put in book form in An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming (Duckworth £9.99). Sachs, on the other hand, who himself often attracts the epithet “cool” (he is very pally with Bono), says we are not alarmed enough by the threat and, in Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (Allen Lane £22), advocates a new world political system. It’s getting hotter in here.
