Water & Sanitation

2014-01-16

PRAGUE – Read a newspaper or watch the evening news, and the world always seems to be getting worse. One problem after another is put under a spotlight. The more death, destruction, and despair, the better. As one Danish journalism textbook puts it: “A good story is usually bad news.” 

Only occasionally do we get uplifting, things-are-getting-better stories. When we do, they feel like a guilty pleasure. As a result, we often think that the world is in worse shape than it is – even if we think our own lives are improving.

2014-01-08 Will we be living better in 2050 than our predecessors did in 1900? The discussion over the state of the world, and whether things are getting better or worse, is not new. Scientists and philosophers have debated the topic for centuries. From Malthus to The Limits to Growth, pessimists have built their case for a future blighted by overpopulation, starvation, and depleted resources as optimists have tried to assure them that everything would be OK.

Bjorn Lomborg gave a TED Talk in New York on How Much Have Global Problems Cost the World? A Scorecard from 1900 - 2050. He presents a new way to compare global problems and shows that the world is becoming a better, more livable place.

2013-11-06 One of the longest-running big picture debates is between optimists and pessimists  arguing the state of the world. Pessimists  have constantly painted a dystopian future from Malthus and Jevons to the 1972 book Limits to Growth. Optimists have cheerfully pointed to how everything is getting better. 

2013-10-16

COPENHAGEN – For centuries, optimists and pessimists have argued over the state of the world. Pessimists see a world where more people means less food, where rising demand for resources means depletion and war, and, in recent decades, where boosting production capacity means more pollution and global warming. One of the current generation of pessimists’ sacred texts, The Limits to Growth, influences the environmental movement to this day.

2013-10-14 FOR the past half century, a fundamental debate has raged between optimists and pessimists over the state of the world. Pessimists build their case on overpopulation, starvation and depletion of resources. Optimists stand for the infallibility of the market economy. Wouldn't it be nice to remove the darkened or rose-tinted spectacles for once, and try to quantify how the world really has done and will do in future? I asked some of the world's leading economists to do just that. The result is a groundbreaking book, How Much Have Global Problems Cost The World?

2012-08-20 Viele Menschen glauben, dass sie zu wenig Wasser trinken - weil es Studien behaupten. Aber bewiesen ist nichts. Genauso läuft die Debatte über Klimawandel und große Dürren. Lesen Sie den Artikel online 

2012-05-23 Si tuviera 75.000 millones de dólares para gastar en los próximos cuatro años y su objetivo fuera mejorar el bienestar de la humanidad, en especial, el mundo en desarrollo, ¿cómo le sacaría el máximo provecho a ese dinero?  Esa pregunta la hice ante un pánel compuesto por cinco de los mejores economistas, incluidos cuatro galardonados con el Premio Nobel, durante el proyecto del Consenso de Copenhague del 2012.

The goal of Copenhagen Consensus 2012 was to set priorities among a series of proposals for confronting ten great global challenges. A panel of economic experts, comprising some of the world’s most distinguished economists, was invited to consider these issues. The ten challenge papers, commissioned from acknowledged authorities in each area of policy, included nearly 40 proposals for the panel’s consideration. During the conference the panel examined these proposals in detail.

Developing the Smartphone of Toilets More than 2.5 billion lack basic sanitation. We can fix that. By Bjørn Lomborg. Posted Wednesday, May 2, 2012 The story of water and sanitation is one of success and failure. The world has met the Millennium Development Goal on the provision of clean drinking water five years early, but is set to miss its goal on basic sanitation by almost 1 billion people. An astonishing one-third of the world population, 2.5 billion people, lacks access to basic sanitation.