When the Only Problem Was Climate Change

The online world has become a free-speech battleground. Tech platforms have sided with illiberal regimes to censor posts while flagging “misinformation” in free countries. We all share a legitimate interest in avoiding outright falsehoods, but much censorship today — whether at dictators’ behest or in the name of eradicating “misinformation” — ultimately is about restricting discourse to a narrow corridor of the politically acceptable. That makes it harder to identify smart policies.

What is the point of climate change policy? To make the world a better place for all of us, and for future generations.

In my new book, False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet, I analyze a lot of ways to make smart climate policy—and many that unfortunately waste resources. But we also need to ask ourselves the broader question: If the goal is to make the world a better place, is climate change policy the most important thing to focus on?

Copenhagen Consensus Center President Bjørn Lomborg says global warming will have “mostly negative impacts”, but people need to have a “sense of proportion”.

“When temperatures rise, you’re going to see more heat, and hence more heatwaves and hence more heat deaths,” he told Sky News host Andrew Bolt.

“But what you don’t hear is that when temperatures rise, you also see less cold, less cold waves, and hence fewer cold deaths.”