“Global Warming”: smothering vital Global solutions.

Woodwork · 10-21-2008, 09:23 AM

The Rational Environmentalist
Bjorn Lomborg on the priorities that should come before global warming.

From Reason Magazine:

Quote:

In 2004, under Lomborg's guidance, the institute convened the first Copenhagen Consensus conference, in which eight leading economists, including four Nobel laureates, were asked to allocate a theoretical $50 billion to solve the world's biggest problems. The panel was presented with 30 proposals from other researchers for ranking and evaluation. The top four priorities left standing at the end of the conference were: controlling HIV/AIDS, providing micronutrients to children, liberalizing trade, and rolling back malaria. Addressing climate change ranked near the bottom. This infuriated many environmentalists, but overall the meeting garnered favorable attention around the world…

Instead of draconian and poverty-inducing cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, Lomborg argued, rich countries could more effectively tackle the problem through massive research and development into low-carbon energy technologies….

In May 2008, Lomborg convened the second Copenhagen Consensus Center conference. This time eight leading economists, including five Nobelists, considered how to allocate a theoretical $75 billion during the next four years to solve 10 of the world's largest problems. Would it be better, for example, to provide efficient stoves to poor people who are exposed to indoor cooking smoke, or supply middle-aged people in developing countries with cheap pills combining aspirin and cholesterol-reducing statins to prevent heart attacks? The panel's top four solutions: providing vitamin A and zinc supplements to poor children, liberalizing trade, fortifying salt and staple foods with the micronutrients iodine and iron, and expanding childhood immunization. Cutting greenhouse gases came in at the bottom, although another approach to global warming—R&D spending on low-carbon energy technologies—was a mid-list priority.

The Rational Environmentalist: Bjorn Lomborg on the priorities that should come before global warming - Reason Magazine

Please go on to read the interview. It is very revealing, clarifying and urgent.

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marite · 10-21-2008, 10:19 AM

Thanks for posting this link, woodwork. There's a lot of food for thought in the article.

I agree that malaria is one of the most deadly diseases and our concern over DDT has helped increase its spread.
As countries develop, they unfortunately create a lot of pollution. I visited Taipei many years ago in the spring and thought that the gray skies were due to looming rain, but it turned out they were the effect of pollution. When I traveled outside Taipei, the sky was a gorgeous blue. Beijing, Shanghai, and other major cities of the PRC are famous for pollution. In smaller cities and towns, the water is polluted by factory waste. Elsewhere in Asia, cities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta suffer the effect of millions of mopeds releasing fumes from cheap diesel fuel. These produce illnesses that were not heard of a few decades ago before their economies began to take off.
So, there is a deadly combination of old diseases that have not been eradicated, such as malaria, and of new ones that can be linked to the pollution associated with unregulated economic activities.

I agree with the author about the importance of technological innovation.