U.N. Climate-Change Alarms Cast Little Light on Heat

Economically Speaking Is Climate Change A Priority? by DAVID KESTENBAUM

December 15, 2009 Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, is roaming the halls of the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen. While Lomborg believes climate change is real, he thinks the approach being taken to fight it is doomed to failure. Lomborg also famously led a team of economists who ranked climate change low on a list of priorities when compared to things like combating disease. Needless to say, Lomborg is not a popular figure at the talks. Listen to the interview online

President Biden enthusiastically describes his administration's new Inflation Reduction Act as "the most significant legislation in history to tackle the climate crisis." Curiously though, neither officials nor media praising the IRA are stating the actual climate impact of spending $369 billion on the bill's climate provisions.

Our current climate conversation embodies two blatantly contradictory claims. On one side, experts warn that promised climate policies will be economically crippling. In a new report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) states that achieving net-zero in 2050 will likely be “the greatest challenge humankind has ever faced.” That is a high bar, surpassing World War II, the black plague and Covid.