Lomborg Sees No U-Turn in Renewable Energy, Carbon Tax Support By Gelu Sulugiuc - Sep 20, 2010

Bjoern Lomborg, the Danish social scientist known for his opposition to efforts to cut emissions, said taxing carbon dioxide and raising investments in renewable energy are the best ways to limit global warming. The author of the best-seller, “The Skeptical Environmentalist,” in a new book advocated global spending on developing renewable-energy technologies of about $100 billion a year and new carbon taxes instead of cap-and-trade programs. (...) 

U-Turn On Global Warming? Hardly. Being skeptical of Al Gore's solution doesn't make me a 'denier.' WALL STREET JOURNAL September 15, 2010 By Bjorn Lomborg After years of being accused of believing something I didn't believe—or, more accurately, not believing something I really did—I made headlines last month for changing my mind even though I hadn't. Confused? Imagine how I feel. It's worth explaining what happened to me because it tells us something important about why the global warming debate has produced so little in the way of results. (...) 

Le statisticien danois Bjorn Lomborg, 45 ans, a connu la notoriété mondiale en 2001 avec son livre The Skeptical Environmentalist (L'Ecologiste sceptique, Le Cherche Midi, 2004). Cet ouvrage entendait démontrer que nombre de problèmes environnementaux - dont le changement climatique - étaient exagérés. Ses thèses ont été combattues par de nombreux écologistes et scientifiques, mais soutenues par des personnalités comme Claude Allègre, qui a préfacé la traduction française de l'ouvrage. (...) 

Bjorn Lomborg: Get Real, Make Green Energy Cheaper Cutting carbon emissions is not the right solution, we must seriously ramp up our commitment to green-energy development I would single out the idea that policymakers should pay more heed to economic science — and less to hyperbole and alarmism — when they are formulating solutions to the world’s biggest problems. (...) 

COPENHAGEN – Since the Copenhagen climate summit’s failure, many politicians and pundits have pointed the finger at China’s leaders for blocking a binding, global carbon-mitigation treaty. But the Chinese government’s resistance was both understandable and inevitable. Rather than mustering indignation, decision-makers would do well to use this as a wake-up call: it is time to consider a smarter climate policy. China is unwilling to do anything that might curtail the economic growth that has enabled millions of Chinese to clamber out of poverty.

COPENHAGEN – As George W. Bush and Tony Blair learned the hard way, the public does not take kindly to being misled about the nature of potential threats. The after-the-fact revelation that the reasons for invading Iraq were vastly exaggerated – and in some cases completely fabricated – produced an angry backlash that helped toss the Republicans out of power in the United States in 2008 and may do the same to Britain’s Labour Party later this year. A similar shift in global public opinion is occurring with respect to climate change. (...) 

SAO PAULO – As well-intentioned gestures go, Earth Hour is hard to beat. At the stroke of 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 27, nearly a billion people in more than 120 countries demonstrated their desire to do something about global warming by switching off their lights for an hour.

LONDON – In February, 14 distinguished climate scientists, economists, and policy experts came together to discuss how to tackle global warming. This week, the London School of Economics and Oxford University are publishing their conclusions. They are worth considering. The group was brought together by Gwyn Prins, a well-regarded expert in security policy and international relations who heads LSE’s Mackinder Programme for the Study of Long Wave Events. Participants included climate scientist Mike Hulme of the University of East Anglia, climate policy expert Roger Pielke Jr.

SÃO PAULO – In a heroic case of finding a silver lining in the bleakest of all situations, the European Union climate commissioner has concluded that the global economic crisis and recession actually provided a lucky break for everyone. Commissioner Connie Hedegaard says that the slowdown in economic activity will make it easier for the EU to achieve its 2020 goal of ensuring that greenhouse-gas emissions are 20% below their 1990 level.

COPENHAGEN – Imagine that over the next 70 or 80 years, a giant port city – say, Tokyo – found itself engulfed by sea levels rising as much as 15 feet or more. Millions of inhabitants would be imperiled, along with trillions of dollars worth of infrastructure. This awful prospect is exactly the sort of thing global-warming evangelists like Al Gore have in mind when they warn that we must take “large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it.” The rhetoric may sound extreme, but with so much hanging in the balance, surely it’s justified.