Seven value-for-money ways to save the world

Newsweek  Bjorn Lomborg 2012-05-28

A message from Bjørn Lomborg to organizers of the Rio+20 environmental summit: poverty pollutes.

Bjorn Lomborg gave a speech at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusettes on 24 February 2014. The talk, entitled "Prioritizing Our Greatest Problems Versus Prioritizing Our Efforts to Find Solutions," discussed the smartest ways to tackle today's most pressing global issues. 

According to WPI, "the University Lecture Series provides a forum for speakers of national and international importance to enhance scholarly and scientific learning and to stimulate the intellectual climate of the university and surrounding communities."

The world’s greatest environmental threat disproportionately harms women and children, particularly in the developing world: it is indoor air pollution.  The World Health Organization estimates that indoor pollution kills 4.3 million people a year, mainly because 2.8 billion people still use firewood, dung and coal for cooking and keeping warm, breathing polluted air inside their homes every day. Indoor air pollution from cooking and heating with open fires can cause harm equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.