Two years ago a science teacher from a high school in Oregon called Greg Craven became a web phenomenon when he posted a video on YouTube entitled The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See.

In the video, which has now been viewed more than 7m times, Craven sets out his take on why — from which ever angle you look at it — we must act to tackle climate change. His common sense approach to the problem was that a basic understanding of risk assessment suggests that we'd be pretty dumb not to spend some effort and cash now trying to avert the worst of the predicted climate change scenarios. In summary, he's arguing for a "better safe than sorry" approach to climate change.

Needless to say, the popularity of the video — and the follow-ups Craven posted on his YouTube homepage in the following months — irked the usual suspects and a trail of debate has followed Craven ever since.

But now he's back with a new video that is a not so subtle plug for his book What's the Worst That Could Happen? A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate.

He's says he's written the book to help him pay for the "Red Bull bill" he's wracked up over the past two years trying to debate with people responding to his videos. I suspect that he's only half-joking.

"This book is my best effort to answer the question that has us all deadlocked in this debate over global warming: "When faced with contradictory statements from experts on a crucial issue, just what the heck is the over-busy lay person supposed to do??" And I think I managed to do it in a fair manner. In fact, the main criticism I got from both sides was — I went too easy on the other side! How's that for striking the middle ground? NO ONE likes me."

Craven says his dream is to try to get the book to sell out its first print run of 15,000 copies before its official release date on July 7. Judging by how quickly his call-out has gone viral — he only sent out his rallying email to friends, family and fans yesterday afternoon — he may well succeed.