The latest global climate summit in Poland has generated familiar predictions of doom and disaster from environmental activists. Climate change seems to freeze our capacity for critical thinking: we are too eager to believe the problem is far worse than science shows, and – conversely – that our solutions are far easier than reality dictates.

Aktywiści mają tendencję do przesadzania wpływu zmiany klimatycznej i równoczesnego niedoceniania kosztów powstrzymywania jej. Pouczające jest przyjęcie nowego oszacowania klimatu przez USA. Ten raport na ogół jest chłodno naukowy i opiera się na jeszcze ostrożniejszym globalnym raporcie panelu ONZ ds. klimatu i nauki znanego jako IPCC.

Niestety, ścisłe relacjonowanie nauki nie zwiększa popularności programów telewizyjnych, a przewidywanie rychłego końca świata tak. 

Enquanto vegetariano por razões éticas, serei o primeiro a dizer que há muitas boas razões para se comer menos carne. Infelizmente, fazer uma diferença enorme no clima não é uma delas.

In het Poolse Katowice zochten wereldleiders deze week naar nieuwe maatregelen om de klimaatopwarming tegen te gaan. Ze waren beter thuis gebleven, zegt klimaatcriticus Björn Lomborg. “Dit beleid deugt niet. Het kost veel geld en heeft bijna geen impact.”

The Ghanaian economy has been growing swiftly, with remarkable GDP growth higher than five per cent for two years running. 

This robust growth means added pressure from special interest groups who demand more public spending on certain projects.

But like every country, Ghana lacks the money to do everything that citizens would like. It has to prioritise between many worthy opportunities. 

Bjorn Lomborg interview on The Jordan B Peterson Podcast. 

The podcast offers discussion and information concerning a variety of complex ideas: How moral & pragmatic values regulate emotion and motivation; Psychometric models such as the Big Five; The significance of hero mythology; The meaning of music, and the structure of the world as represented through religion and spiritual belief.

Politicians are gathering in Poland for a climate summit being billed as the most important conference since the Paris treaty was signed in 2015. Around the world the chattering classes have declared that more political willpower is needed to solve global warming. This is deluded: it ignores the privileged place climate change has among all of humanity’s challenges and misses the real reasons for our failure.

Når du går på restaurant, får du en menu med lækre måltider, deres pris og nu også somme tider ernæringsinformation som kalorier og fedtindhold.

Menuen bestemmer ikke dit valg – du vælger ikke bare den billigste ret eller den med lavest fedtindhold. Men den bidrager til at gøre din beslutning bedre. Hvordan ved vi det? Jo, tænk, hvis du fik en menu uden information – du kunne stadig vælge mellem lækker oksemørbrad og spændende pizza, men du ville ikke have nogen idé om, hvor stor portionen var.

The climate summit in Poland has been given a boost in recent weeks by well-timed climate change reports shaping the news agenda. But if we dig deeper than most of the media did, these reports demonstrate what is wrong with global warming policy discussion.

The first report was by the United Nations’ panel of climate scientists, the IPCC. It was widely reported as urging the world to draconically cut emissions to keep temperature rises below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Activists tend to exaggerate the impacts of climate change while underestimating the costs of tackling it. The reception to the new US climate assessment was instructive. The report largely attempts to remain soberly scientific, and follows the even more careful global report by the United Nations’ climate-science panel, known as the IPCC.

Sadly, accurate science doesn’t make for good television; predicting the end of times does.