Lomborg interview in the Third Way magazine
The self-styled 'sceptical environmentalist' Professor Bjørn Lomborg has for years been both extolled and excoriated. As he urges us all to 'cool it', Third Way got smart with him at the Copenhagen Consensus Center.
The accolades you have received - three years ago, for example, the Guardian called you 'one of the 50 people who could save the planet' - are extraordinary. Would the people who knew you as a child have been surprised? I don't know. I think they would probably say they always knew I was a little bit weird, but they didn't know whether it was weird in a good way. I excelled academically, and certainly I knew too many long words. What kind of upbringing did you have? I was brought up by my mom, who's a primary-school teacher - my dad died when I was very young. I'm an only child and I had a huge amount of love. I've always felt that the reason I've been able to do what I've done is fundamentally because my mom told me, 'You're just amazing and I love you.' So, you know, I don't feel quite the same need to know that everybody else does. (...)