Bjorn Lomborg's Latest Global Warming Experiment

The WSJ's Kimberly Strassel interviews Bjorn Lomborg on his latest economic exercise -- asking eight U.N. ambassadors to prioritize global projects. Global warming ends up at the bottom. Again.

1 minute read

July 9, 2006, 7:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen

"Bjorn Lomborg busted -- and that is the only word for it -- onto the world scene in 2001 with the publication of his book "The Skeptical Environmentalist."

...SoMr. Lomborg, who several weeks ago got his first big shot at reprogramming world leaders. His organization, the Copenhagen Consensus Center, held a new version of the exercise in Georgetown. In attendance were eight U.N. ambassadors, including John Bolton. (China and India signed on, though no Europeans.) They were presented with global projects, the merits of each of which were passionately argued by experts in those fields. Then they were asked: If you had an extra $50 billion, how would you prioritize your spending?

...So rank they did. And perhaps no surprise, their final list looked very similar to that of the wise economists. At the top were better health care, cleaner water, more schools and improved nutrition. At the bottom was . . . global warming."

[Editor's note: This article is available to Planetizen subscribers for a period of six days.]

FULL STORY: Bjorn Lomborg -- Get Your Priorities Right

Saturday, July 8, 2006 in The Wall Street Journal

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