One time Greenie, now rationalist Bjorn Lomborg wrote a priceless editorial in a recent edition of the Wall Street Journal concerning the view on global warming from Bangladesh.
He visited the country to find out how people in a poor, low-lying country feel about what the richer countries propose to do to mitigate the presumed, yet unproven effects of global warming.
Sorry. "Global climate change," since as soon as WarmBoy Al Gore began making the former phrase popular, the damned planet began to cool.
Anyway.....
Lomborg writes,
"For Mrs. Begum, the choice is simple. After global warming was explained to her, she said:
"When my kids haven't got enough to eat, I don't think global warming will be an issue I will be thinking about."
One of Bangladesh's most vulnerable citizens, Mrs. Begum has lost faith in the media and politicians.
"So many people like you have come and interviewed us. I have not seen any improvement in our conditions," she said."
So much for patrician UN-types deciding to soak the rich in developed countries for the presumed benefit of the poor in places like Bangladesh. As Lomborg noted,
"Getting basic sanitation and safe drinking water to the three billion people around the world who do not have it now would cost nearly $4 billion a year. By contrast, cuts in global carbon emissions that aim to limit global temperature increases to less than two degrees Celsius over the next century would cost $40 trillion a year by 2010. These cuts will do nothing to reduce the number of people with access to clean drinking water and sanitation."
Lomborg's work has consistently shown that the simplest, cheapest things that can be done by the developed world, e.g., providing clean water and working on basic diseases in the third world, offer the best returns in terms of lives improved and productivity of people around the world.
Now, he's shown that even the very people who would be affected agree with him.
Showing posts with label Lomborg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lomborg. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
"Warm Boy" Al Gore Ducks Bjorn Lomborg
I saw a brief clip of a scene from the Wall Street Journal's recent climate conference on Sean Hannity's Fox News program last night. It seems that the same clip is on YouTube this morning, as well, but it is marked 'private,' so I could not view it.
The scene was hysterical. Noted former Greenpeace scientist Bjorn Lomborg, now a prominent and credible doubter about global warming, Warm Boy Al's signature issue, challenged Gore to a debate.
The offer was simple and unmistakable. Bjorn issued an offer to Al to debate the topic of global warming.
Al ducked.
he hemmed, and hawed, and took about 15 seconds to manage to squeeze out a contention that all sorts of scientists had now determined that humans are responsible for global warming, so that's it.
No need for further debate.
Lomborg is the world's most credible, vocal and pragmatic voice regarding analysis of various green initiatives. He's given seminars all over the world and conducted workshops for the UN and other bodies involving the rating of importance and benefits/costs of key environmental initiatives.
With Lomborg's guidance, these groups always rate global warming at the bottom of the list of urgent topics on which the world should actually spend money. That's because it is:
a) not clearly identified as caused by humans;
b) may be a natural earth cycle that we cannot control, and;
c) the cost of doing anything about it is enormous, while the effects of human action will likely have little effect on any natural earth processes.
Faced with a real debate opponent, rather than a mute video camera, Oscar-winning Al was continuing to weasel his way out of the challenge when the clip ended.
Does that sound like a confident proponent of his position to you? Instead, it sounds like Warm Boy thinks that just because a bunch of Hollywood airheads gave him an award, his conclusions must be true.
No need to debate it anymore. Hollywood said it's so!
Sadly, our newly-inaugurated First Rookie thinks so, too. So much for intelligence in the Oval Office for the next four years.
The scene was hysterical. Noted former Greenpeace scientist Bjorn Lomborg, now a prominent and credible doubter about global warming, Warm Boy Al's signature issue, challenged Gore to a debate.
The offer was simple and unmistakable. Bjorn issued an offer to Al to debate the topic of global warming.
Al ducked.
he hemmed, and hawed, and took about 15 seconds to manage to squeeze out a contention that all sorts of scientists had now determined that humans are responsible for global warming, so that's it.
No need for further debate.
Lomborg is the world's most credible, vocal and pragmatic voice regarding analysis of various green initiatives. He's given seminars all over the world and conducted workshops for the UN and other bodies involving the rating of importance and benefits/costs of key environmental initiatives.
With Lomborg's guidance, these groups always rate global warming at the bottom of the list of urgent topics on which the world should actually spend money. That's because it is:
a) not clearly identified as caused by humans;
b) may be a natural earth cycle that we cannot control, and;
c) the cost of doing anything about it is enormous, while the effects of human action will likely have little effect on any natural earth processes.
Faced with a real debate opponent, rather than a mute video camera, Oscar-winning Al was continuing to weasel his way out of the challenge when the clip ended.
Does that sound like a confident proponent of his position to you? Instead, it sounds like Warm Boy thinks that just because a bunch of Hollywood airheads gave him an award, his conclusions must be true.
No need to debate it anymore. Hollywood said it's so!
Sadly, our newly-inaugurated First Rookie thinks so, too. So much for intelligence in the Oval Office for the next four years.
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