Bjorn Lomborg and the List That Could Save the World

Jobs don’t come much tougher than this. Whoever is chosen as the new head of the World Health Organization next week has $4.5 billion a year to spend – but when you’re trying to improve public health on a planet of 7.5 billion people, you have to use it wisely.

So the new director-general needs to prioritise areas where a sharper focus would squeeze the most out of every dollar, yen, euro or pound spent. Doing this would also bolster the case for an increase in the WHO’s budget.

For decades, climate activists have exhorted people in the wealthy West to change their personal behavior to cut carbon emissions. We have been told to drive less, to stop flying and, in general, to reduce consumption—all in the name of saving the planet from ever higher temperatures.

The Covid-19 pandemic has now achieved these goals, at least temporarily. With the enormous reduction in global economic activity, it has been as if people around the world suddenly decided to heed the activists and curtail their travel and consumption.

It sounds almost too good to be true: a single development investment that tackles one of Haiti’s biggest death-tolls and at the same time combats deforestation and pollution. That is what one contribution to the Haiti Priorise project suggests.

While some depictions show Haiti to be almost entirely deforested, recent work finds that up to one-third of land is covered in trees. In any case, having more trees can help Haiti, because it can prevent erosion, aid pollination, and improve water-flow.