EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW - BJORN LOMBORG: Lomborg 'chills out' debate on global warming
Bjorn Lomborg is a prominent statistician and social scientist, and author of two books on climate change, Cool It and The Skeptical Environmentalist. Lomborg is also the former director of the Environmental Assessment Institute in Copenhagen.
Do you think it's hard to communicate a more nuanced or complex view of the impact of global warming in an era of television sound bytes and Internet blogs?
Yes, it is hard in the sense that we have this very strong polarization, as you just described. It's actually hard to stake out the middle ground and that's what I'm trying to say. Yes climate change is real, and yes we need to deal with climate change, but no, it's not a catastrophe and no we shouldn't deal with it by making stupid political decisions. We should do it by making smart ones that will work in the long run. That's a harder message than saying "Oh don't worry, its all a hoax," or "My god, we're all going to die in the next ten years." I think it is important that if we're actually going to solve climate change, we should look further into the matter and actually get the policy decisions right.
In a recent Washington Post article, you emphasized that ultimately, the bitter debate over global warming needs to end and that people need to approach the problem rationally and "chill out". What do you think leads to this kind of polarized debate over climate change?
I think to a large extent, the reason why we have this polarized debate is because there are so many interests beyond climate change-both downplaying it and by proponents who say they want everything [to] change. The point I try to make in my book [Cool It] is that we need to find a smart way. Yes, we need change, but we're only going to get change if we find a smart and cheap way to make that change happen.
Will you talk for a moment about the Copenhagen Consensus, a group you formed in 2004? What was the purpose of getting economists involved in a field traditionally dominated by scientists?
When we have a lot of different problems in the world, the question is not just a scientific one of whether global warming is happening or not. It is definitely happening. It's also a question of social science: namely, what should we do? If we can't solve all problems, where should we start first? There is way too much of a focus on saying, "Climate change is a problem and we clearly should do something about it." That's true of all problems in the world. Clearly HIV/AIDS is a problem; malaria is a problem; malnutrition is a problem; and the lack of agricultural trade from the third world to the first world is a big problem. My point is simply to say that we have to ask the question of where we can do the most good. That's what economists look at-where do you get the most bang for your buck? So that's what I brought all these economist together [with the Copenhagen Consensus] to make a prioritized list of all the things we could do in the world and to see where we could get the most good for the money that we're going to spend.
Do you think any small-scale, personal choices can have enough of an impact to make a serious difference on climate change, or do you think that the realm of government action is the best way to address any serious problems?
I have a clear view, but it's not a very popular one. This really is a question of systemic impact-how do we make our society, how far you have to commute to work, and the type of power stations that generate the electricity for our homes. These big government decisions really make the difference. It's fine that people change their light bulbs, but quite frankly, the reason we got so rich in the past couple hundred years is because we specialized. I don't know how my laptop computer works, or how the sewer system in Montreal works, but I know that someone deals with it. This is a bit like how climate science should happen. Everyone does not need an intimate knowledge of how much carbon dioxide goes into every product.
What do you think of high-profile efforts by people like Al Gore to get people involved and aware of climate change? Do you think that public awareness only leads to hysteria and polarization, or do you think that such awareness and public knowledge is beneficial to the current debate?
I'm very ambivalent about Al Gore. On the one hand, I congratulate him for bringing the issue to the forefront of people's attention, and certainly bringing a lot of right-wing Americans away from the conspiracy mindset. On the other hand, in doing so, he has scared most people on the planet, way beyond what's reasonable. This scare mongering has a bad impact on how we deal with problems, because we panic and make bad decisions, and also because we have to realize that climate change is not the only problem in the world. Further, climate change is not the only problem in the world-a billion people are extremely poor, two billion people don't have access to clean drinking water or electricity, and three billion are malnourished. There are other very important issues and if we over-worry about one problem, we end up neglecting all these others.
-Compiled by Byron Tau and Carolyn Parkinson
2008 Woodie Awards
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Hugh Campbell
posted 1/09/08 @ 8:36 AM EST
Lomborg should provide statistical proof that moneys spent now and in the future on climate change mitigation would otherwise be spent on clean drinking water. (Continued…)
Tom Fuller
posted 1/13/08 @ 6:12 PM EST
Mr. Campbell, Why should he do that? He's a statistician, not a politician. Lomborg is trying to put the problem of climate change into perspective--and he recommends a priority list generated from the Copenhagen Consensus a couple of years back. (Continued…)
David Corry
posted 1/25/08 @ 11:23 AM EST
When deciding how much weight to give to Lomborg's views it will be help[ful to have a look at a website run by one of his compatriots: -
www.lomborg-errors
This site, which has a detailed and painstaking analysis of his book "The Skeptical Enviromentalist", has recently seen a surge in the numbers of visitors to it - and now has a new section dealing specifically with Lomborgs most recent book "Cool It". (Continued…)
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