What do global problems cost us?

The Copenhagen protocol will not succeed unless China and India sign up, but bribing these nations to take part is counterproductive  Björn Lomborg, guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 February 2009 This December, global leaders will meet in Copenhagen to negotiate a new climate change pact to reduce carbon emissions. Yet, the way that it has been set up, it will inevitably fail. The best hope is that we use this lesson finally to deal with this issue in a smarter fashion.

WE are often told that tackling global warming should be the defining task of our age — that we must cut emissions immediately and drastically. But people are not buying the idea that, unless we act, the planet is doomed. Several recent polls have revealed Americans’ growing skepticism. Solving global warming has become their lowest policy priority, according to a new Pew survey. (...) 

Lomborg discussed the necessity of designing policies that work for the world's poor in order to seriously tackle global warming with Wall Street Journal editor Paul Gigot on the Journal Editorial Report.