Polar Bears, Dead Coral and Other Climate Fictions

2011 Sept Psychologies

Bjorn Lomborg, academic and author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, for shaking up the climate change debate without ever denying the reality of man-made global warming. Nominated by Julian Baggini, philosopher and author of The Ego Trick. 

The concept of trade-offs has become unfashionable. Politicians around the world like to pretend that their choices will bring us nothing but superlative benefits.

Nowhere is this whitewashing more pervasive or accepted than in climate change. There is a prevalent, comforting notion that we can have our cake and eat it too: that cutting carbon need not involve financial sacrifice.

Lomborg discusses the research presented in the book "Best Things First" on television, radio and podcasts around the globe. Watch his interview Julia Hartley-Brewer.