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Op-ed by Bjorn Lomborg  Thursday, July 16, 2009

The plan we are most likely to adopt to address climate change will cost far too much and do next to nothing. The fight over the science of warming is over, yes. But the debate over the solution to global warming hasn't even begun. 

Przesadzając straszymy dzieci – wierzą one, że nie mają przyszłości i że nastąpi koniec świata. Stałe pokazywanie w popularnych mediach przerażających historii o globalnym ociepleniu straszy niepotrzebnie. Co gorsza, przeraża nasze dzieci. Słynne jest odmalowanie podniesienia poziomu morza (o sześć metrów) przez Ala Gore’a, niemal całkowicie zalewające Florydę, Nowy Jork, Holandię, Bangladesz i Szanghaj, mimo że ONZ stwierdza, iż nic takiego się nie zdarzy i szacuje, że poziom wód podniesie się, ale dwudziestokrotnie mniej.

We are frightening children with exaggerations – they believe they don't have a future and that the world is going to end The continuous presentation of scary stories about global warming in the popular media makes us unnecessarily frightened. Even worse, it terrifies our kids. Al Gore famously depicted how a sea-level rise of 20ft (six metres) would almost completely flood Florida, New York, Holland, Bangladesh, and Shanghai, even though the United Nations says that such a thing will not even happen, estimating that sea levels will rise 20 times less than that.

Some business leaders are cozying up with politicians and scientists to demand swift, drastic action on global warming. This is a new twist on a very old practice: companies using public policy to line their own pockets. The tight relationship between the groups echoes the relationship among weapons makers, researchers and the U.S. military during the Cold War.

Global Warming Is Manageable -- if We're Smart

THE NEXT TREATY TO CURB GLOBAL WARMING WILL BE negotiated this December in Copenhagen, Bjorn Lomborg's home city.

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. (...) 

According to conventional wisdom, we are voraciously using the world’s resources and living way beyond Earth’s means. This narrative of decline and pessimism underlies much of today’s environmental discourse, and is often formulated in a simple fashion: by 2030, we will need two planets to sustain us, owing to higher living standards and population growth. If everyone managed to live at American living standards today, we would need almost five planets. But this received wisdom is fundamentally wrong. (...) 

THIS Saturday, the World Wildlife Fund wants everybody on the planet to switch off their lights for an hour in a "global election between Earth and global warming", where switching off the lights "is a vote for Earth". In Australia, where Earth Hour started, it evidently enjoys strong support from politicians, celebrities, corporate backers and the public. The efforts this Saturday certainly will be well-intentioned. Many of us worry about global warming and would like to be part of the solution.

Bjorn Lomborg said the event could actually increase emissions (...)