Lomborg at BRISTOL Festival of Ideas, May 31

Bjørn Lomborg Putting Global Warming in Perspective 31 May 2011, 18.30-20.30

At Bristol Bjørn Lomborg believes that global warming is real, man-made and will have a serious impact on humans and the environment toward the end of thiscentury. In a range of books (including The Skeptical Environmentalist and Cool It), articles and now a film, Lomborg argues that we need to look at the costs and benefits of the proposed measures. He demonstrates that drastic, here-and-now measures are the worst way to spend money as climate change is a 100-year problem that cannot be fixed in ten years. Instead we should focus on the smartest solutions to the problems that the world faces, whether we’re dealing with climate change, communicable diseases, malnutrition, or agricultural subsidies. If we want to help the world to the greatest extent we can, we do need to fix climate, but should do so smartly and effectively, and we should also remember there are many other important things we can focus on right now, like micronutrient supplementation and fortification, community nutrition programmes, expanded vaccination coverage for children, elimination of financial barriers to education, improving agricultural technology that would do amazing things at very low cost. He presents his case and then debates it with local experts including Juliet Davenport (CEO and founder of green power firm, Good Energy), Professor Jim Longhurst (University of the West of England) and Peter Madden, Director, Forum for the Future. http://www.ideasfestival.co.uk/?p=1022