Tag: Bjorn Lomborg
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Invisible Fuel (and “Limits to Growth” Thinking)
Economist: Inivisble Fuel THE CHEAPEST AND cleanest energy choice of all is not to waste it. Progress on this has been striking yet the potential is still vast. Improvements in energy efficiency since the 1970s in 11 IEA member countries that keep the right kind of statistics (America, Australia, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy,…
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Limits to Growth: Still Wrong, Still Influential – Bjorn Lomborg
Below is a presentation by Bjorn Lomborg at Creative Innovation 2013: Asia Pacific. I think this is a remarkable presentation. First, a few remarks. How much can the global economy grow? That is a big issue in economics and environmentalism. Clearly, the earth has a fixed quantity of resources. If the economy grows exponentially, then…
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Thoughts on the “The Limits to Panic”
Forty-one years after the publication of the infamous Limits to Growth, Bjorn Lomborg offers this excellent piece, The Limits to Panic: … But the report's fundamental legacy remains: we have inherited a tendency to obsess over misguided remedies for largely trivial problems, while often ignoring big problems and sensible remedies. In the early 1970's, the…
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How Free Trade Might Be the World’s Best Option
Huffington Post: How Free Trade Might Be the World's Best Option – Bjorn Lomborg … The classic argument for free trade points out that specialization and exchange benefits everyone, because goods are produced by the countries that specialize in those goods and produce them most efficiently. The standard World Bank models show that realistic free…
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Bjorn Lomborg: Climate-Change Misdirection
Wall Street Journal: Bjorn Lomborg: Climate-Change Misdirection Fear-mongering exaggeration about effects of global warming distracts us from finding affordable and effective energy alternatives. In his second inaugural address on Monday, President Obama laudably promised to "respond to the threat of climate change." Unfortunately, when the president described the urgent nature of the threat—the "devastating impact…
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Bjorn Lomborg on Scaring People Into Action
Project Syndicate: Bjorn Lomborg on Scaring People Into Action PRAGUE – Campaigners on important but complex issues, annoyed by the length of time required for public deliberations, often react by exaggerating their claims, hoping to force a single solution to the forefront of public debate. But, however well intentioned, scaring the public into a predetermined…
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Does Helping the Planet Hurt the Poor?
Wall Street Journal: Does Helping the Planet Hurt the Poor? Bjorn Lomborg (I missed this one from a couple of weeks ago. Better late than never.) Yes, if We Listen to Green Extremists. Peter Singer poses an interesting and important question: Can we afford to both reduce poverty and clean up the environment? From an…
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U-Turn On Global Warming? Hardly
Wall Street Journal: U-Turn On Global Warming? Hardly by Bjorn Lomborg Being skeptical of Al Gore's solution doesn't make me a 'denier.' After years of being accused of believing something I didn't believe—or, more accurately, not believing something I really did—I made headlines last month for changing my mind even though I hadn't. Confused? Imagine…