News - English
25-02-2010 - Lomborg on CNN Amanpour
CNN'S AMANPOUR
A New Look at the Climate Change Debate
Aired February 24, 2010 - 15:00:00 ET
AMANPOUR: (..) Are Senator Inhofe's claims hot air or do they have merit? Joining me now from Washington to discuss all of this, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who's also the author of "Hot, Flat and Crowded," from Copenhagen, the renowned climate change skeptic, Bjorn Lomborg, who's author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist," and here in the studio, Jim Hansen, head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and who's credited with sparking concerns about climate change as much as a quarter of a century ago.
BL on CNN Amanpour 2010 Febr 23.pdf
22-01-2010 - Book review about Global Crises, Global Solutions
By Nicholas Newman, Oxford Prospect.
Increasingly, we are hearing the term that something must be done to solve the world’s almost never-ending ending crises. The media is full of pressing appeals that every problem is urgent and must be tackled immediately, with often little regard to the economic and social costs involved.
Unfortunately, for policy makers, the real world of geopolitics and budgetary issues forces politicians to prioritise decisions. Often such policy decisions will be both tough to make and politically unpopular with the public at large. This book is designed as a set of tools to help equip both policy makers and philanthropists to make the most effective decisions, through an in depth analysis of the issues, solutions and thoughtful recommendations. (...)
http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/Bjornlomborgglobalcrisisglobalsolutions.htm
Bookreview 2009GCGS by Newman.pdf
06-11-2009 - Bridging the Generation Gap on Climate -interview with Lomborg
By SEBNEM ARSU and JAMES KANTER
Published: October 30, 2009
...Bjorn Lomborg, a Danish political scientist who found fame as the author of the provocative book “The Skeptical Environmentalist,” said that by campaigning for swift agreement at a global climate conference in December in Copenhagen, the Elders risked backing expensive and ineffective solutions that might divert money from more effective measures to save lives and protect the planet.
“I have no doubt the Elders care deeply about their grandchildren,” Mr. Lomborg said, “but we should be concerned about all the other grandchildren who were not at the event and who run the risk of dying tomorrow from lack of sanitation, starvation and disease.”...
Bridging the Generation Gap on Climate - NYTimes.com.pdf
07-09-2009 - Lomborg in Newsweek: Carbon Cuts Won’t Work
When world leaders meet for the climate-change summit in Copenhagen this December, they will make decisions that will affect the world for many generations. Three months before that meeting, there is an alarming absence of serious discussion about what these decisions should be. What passes for debate is usually a shouting match between those who believe that climate change is not real and those who believe that it will end life on Earth. We are all, it seems, either "deniers" or "believers." (...)
http://www.newsweek.com/id/214244
BL op-ed 2009 Aug 29 Newsweek Carbon Cuts Won’t Work.pdf
07-09-2009 - Lomborg in WSJ: Technology Can Fight Global Warming
Marine cloud whitening, and other ideas.
We have precious little to show for nearly 20 years of efforts to prevent global warming. Promises in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 to cut carbon emissions went unfulfilled. Stronger pledges in Kyoto five years later failed to keep emissions in check. The only possible lesson is that agreements to reduce carbon emissions are costly, politically arduous and ultimately ineffective.
But this is a lesson many are hell-bent on ignoring, as politicians plan to gather again—this time in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December—to negotiate a new carbon-emissions treaty. Even if they manage to bridge their differences and sign a deal, there is a strong likelihood that tomorrow's politicians will fail to deliver. (...)
BL op-ed 2009 Aug 28 WSJ Technology Can Fight GW.pdf
03-09-2009 - Lomborg's new op-ed: Adapting to Climate Change
Striking the right balance between preventing global warming and adapting to its effects is one of the most important – and most vexing – policy questions of our age. It is also often ignored. (...)
BL op-ed 2009 Aug Adapting to Climate Change.pdf
02-09-2009 - Lomborg's op-ed in The Australian: Cut the carbon later on
Cutting future emissions is much cheaper than slashing present ones, argues Bjorn Lomborg
AT its heart, much of the debate over climate change deals with just one divisive and vexing question: How big should cuts in carbon emissions be? This narrow focus makes the debate unconstructive. Everybody wants to prevent global warming and the real question is: How can we do that best?
We should be open to other ways to stop warming, such as cutting carbon emissions in the future instead of now or focusing on reducing emissions of other greenhouse gases. Global warming will create significant problems, so carbon reductions offer significant benefits.
Cutting carbon emissions, however, requires a reduction in the basic energy use that underpins modern society, so it also will mean significant costs. (...)
BL op-ed 2009 Aug 20 Cut the carbon later on.pdf
01-09-2009 - Lomborg op-ed: Atmospheric engineering may help reverse global warming
in:The Daily Star. Saturday, August 15, 2009
Global warming will mean that more people die from the heat. There will be a rise in sea levels, more malaria, starvation and poverty. Concern has been great, but humanity has done very little that will actually prevent these outcomes. Carbon emissions have kept increasing, despite repeated promises of cuts. We all have a stake in ensuring that climate change is stopped. We turned to climate scientists to inform us about the problem of global warming. Now we need to turn to climate economists to enlighten us about the benefits, costs, and possible outcomes from different responses to this challenge. (...)
BL op-ed 2009 Aug 15 Atmospheric engineering.pdf
20-08-2009 - Lomborg in Business Insider Green Sheet
Bjorn Lomborg: We Need To Spray Water Into The Air To Cool The Globe
Jay Yarow|Aug. 7, 2009, 12:52 PM
In the Financial Times, climate pundit Bjorn Lomborg reiterates his argument that the current policy tacts for combating climate change are expensive and unlikely to do much.
So what's a better alternative? The FT says Lomborg advocates, "tackling sources of climate change other than carbon dioxide, such as methane and soot; investing in new technologies; adapting to the effects of climate change; planting more forests; and weighing up whether emissions cuts are cheaper to do now or later." (...)
Article on BL 2009 Aug 7 Business Insider Spray Water.pdf
18-07-2009 - When it comes to global warming, talk of treason is in the air
Op-ed by Bjorn Lomborg
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Discussions about global warming are marked by an increasing desire to stamp out “impure” thinking, to the point of questioning the value of democratic debate. But shutting down discussion simply means the disappearance of reason from public policy. In March, Al Gore’s science adviser and prominent climate researcher, Jim Hansen, proclaimed that when it comes to dealing with global warming, the “democratic process isn’t working.” Although science has demonstrated that carbon-dioxide from fossil fuels is heating the planet, politicians are unwilling to follow his advice and stop building coal-fired power plants. (...)
15-07-2009 - Mr. Gore, Your Solution to Climate Change is Wrong
The plan we are most likely to adopt to address climate change will cost far too much and do next to nothing. The fight over the science of warming is over, yes. But the debate over the solution to global warming hasn't even begun.
Bjorn Lomborg in Esquire July 15 2009.pdf
18-06-2009 - Lomborg's op-ed: Scared silly over climate change
We are frightening children with exaggerations – they believe they don't have a future and that the world is going to end
The continuous presentation of scary stories about global warming in the popular media makes us unnecessarily frightened. Even worse, it terrifies our kids.
Al Gore famously depicted how a sea-level rise of 20ft (six metres) would almost completely flood Florida, New York, Holland, Bangladesh, and Shanghai, even though the United Nations says that such a thing will not even happen, estimating that sea levels will rise 20 times less than that.
When confronted with these exaggerations, some of us say that they are for a good cause, and surely there is no harm done if the result is that we focus even more on tackling climate change. A similar argument was used when George W Bush's administration overstated the terror threat from Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
This argument is astonishingly wrong. (...)
BL Op-ed June 15 2009 Guardian Scaring kids.pdf
23-05-2009 - Lomborg's op-ed in WSJ: Climate-Industrial Complex
Some business leaders are cozying up with politicians and scientists to demand swift, drastic action on global warming. This is a new twist on a very old practice: companies using public policy to line their own pockets.
The tight relationship between the groups echoes the relationship among weapons makers, researchers and the U.S. military during the Cold War. President Dwight Eisenhower famously warned about the might of the "military-industrial complex," cautioning that "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." He worried that "there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties."
This is certainly true of climate change. (...)
BL Op-ed May 22 2009 Climate-Industrial Complex.pdf
28-04-2009 - Lomborg in New York Times: Copenhagen Climate Summit will waste 10 more years unless we change tracks
WE are often told that tackling global warming should be the defining task of our age — that we must cut emissions immediately and drastically. But people are not buying the idea that, unless we act, the planet is doomed. Several recent polls have revealed Americans’ growing skepticism. Solving global warming has become their lowest policy priority, according to a new Pew survey. (...)
BL Op-ed 2009 April 25 New York Times COP15.pdf
16-04-2009 - Op-ed: Earth is Enough
According to conventional wisdom, we are voraciously using the world’s resources and living way beyond Earth’s means. This narrative of decline and pessimism underlies much of today’s environmental discourse, and is often formulated in a simple fashion: by 2030, we will need two planets to sustain us, owing to higher living standards and population growth. If everyone managed to live at American living standards today, we would need almost five planets. But this received wisdom is fundamentally wrong. (...)
BL op-ed 2009 Apr 15 Ecological Footprint.pdf
01-04-2009 - Op-ed: Hour of no power increases emissions
THIS Saturday, the World Wildlife Fund wants everybody on the planet to switch off their lights for an hour in a "global election between Earth and global warming", where switching off the lights "is a vote for Earth".
In Australia, where Earth Hour started, it evidently enjoys strong support from politicians, celebrities, corporate backers and the public. The efforts this Saturday certainly will be well-intentioned. Many of us worry about global warming and would like to be part of the solution. Unfortunately, this event - as with many public proposals on climate change - is an entirely symbolic gesture that creates the mistaken impression that there are easy, quick fixes to climate change. One provincial British newspaper wrote this week: "Saving the planet could be as easy as switching off the lights in South Tyneside, green campaigners say." (...)
2009 Mc 27 BL op-ed Hour of no power.pdf
01-04-2009 - Lomborg is quoted in Fox about Earth Hour
Bjorn Lomborg said the event could actually increase emissions (...)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,511102,00.html
Int BL 2009 March 27 Foxnews.pdf
11-03-2009 - Lomborg quoted in The Weekly Standard
Obama's Global Warming Straddle
