Realtime with Bill Maher, Sept 21, 2007

Though the images of abandoned cars in waterlogged East Coast streets might make you think otherwise, the relative toll that floods take on the U.S.—in property and lives—has decreased over time. Flooding costs as a share of gross domestic product declined almost 10-fold since 1903 to 0.05% of GDP, while annual flood death risk—fatalities per million—dropped almost threefold. World-wide data are sparser, but flood research shows costs relative to GDP and deaths relative to population have decreased globally from 1980 to 2010.

On September 4, Bjorn Lomborg's latest book 'Cool It' was released in the US.  It will soon be available in the UK and the rest of the world. Buy on Amazon

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.