We can do enormous good - San Francisco Examiner
In 2001, Danish economist Bjorn Lomborg enraged the environmental community by publishing his book 'The Skeptical Environmentalist,' which claims the planet is not in as dire a condition as many would have us believe. With the Kyoto Protocol aimed at curbing global warming set to take effect next week, Lomborg spoke with Examiner reporter Josh Wein to discuss his views on the world's problems. His new book, "Global Crises, Global Solutions," argues there are other, more pressing issues that deserve the world's resources.Via Newmark's Door. Marginal Revolution has more.
posted by John B. Chilton at 2/09/2005 05:31:00 PM
1 Comments:
I'm not sure where you stand on global warming, but as a centrist (more on what that means to me below), I found this most interesting:
"The U.S. is a very energy-inefficient society, compared to other societies. In certain ways it makes for a better quality of living. I only have a bike, I don't have a car. It means that I go grocery shopping with my bags hanging off the handle bars. Here in the United States my friends all go shopping in their cars and they pull right into their garages. It's a different quality of living and it has certain environmental costs."
The thing is, people who quote Lomborg (or Crichton or whoever) seem to skip this part. They view it as an all-or-nothing argument - either there is enough evidence for "trillions" (wherever that number comes from) to be spent, or we should just do nothing.
When I say I'm a centrist, I mean that I have an open mind, and see enough evidence for global warming, for us to be taking the basic steps ... to make our lives a little more efficient, and so on.
I mean, we are increasingly a culture of obese people hauling themselves around in SUVs. Surely a little more walking (or biking) would make us healthier, happier, and more economically/environmentally efficient.
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