At the risk of piling on, we'd like to add our voice to those who are disappointed by the clumsy unprofessionalism of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner's new book, SuperFreakonomics - at least in regard to its handling of climate change.

Assuming that Levitt and Dubner's foray into disinformation was accidental rather than intentional, I would speculate that there are two reasons why the authors bungled this section. First, they made a popular assumption that because someone is smart about one thing, they are smart about everything. Second, they were happy to get their information from people who were basing their opinions more on their world view than on the careful calculations of actual science.

If you are interested in the specific factual weaknesses in SuperFreakonomics, you can get a long version from Joe Romm at RealProgress or a shorter, but equally devastating dissection from Tim Lambert at Deltoid. (I especially like the clarity of Tim's headline: "Why Everything in SuperFreakonomics about Global Warming is Wrong.")

For the defensive, but ultimately unconvincing response from Dubner, you can check out the SuperFreakonomics blog on the New York Times site.