"The Skeptical Environmentalist": A Conversation with John Tierney and Bjorn Lomborg

"The thing that blows my mind is that we spend so much money on feeling good," says author and activist Bjorn Lomborg about "feel-good" environmentalist measures like recycling and wind turbines, "I would like us to do stuff that actually works."

The Reason Foundation hosted a conversation with Lomborg and the New York Times' John Tierney at the Museum of Sex in New York City, where they discussed how free trade and innovation could help alleviate the suffering of the third world and improve the environment, if only people could be convinced these "unsexy" ideas were of greater benefit than sorting the glass and plastic in their garbage.

Lomborg, the author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist" and the subject of the documentary film "Cool It," is also the founder and director of the Copenhagen Consensus, a Danish think-tank focused on finding the "the best ways for governments and philanthropists to spend aid and development money."

For more Reason coverage of the Copenhagen Consensus go here: http://reason.com/blog/2009/09/04/rea...

About 27 minutes.

Produced by Anthony L. Fisher.

Visit http://reason.tv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live.

• Category

  News & Politics

[breako]

The problem with Bjorn Lomborg is that he only appeals to thinking people. 

[shamrock32]

I can't believe Lomborg flip floped on climate change.....smh

[kawaiigardiner]

The problem with the debate over climate change is no one wants to address the elephant in the corner of the room - the simple fact of the matter is that earth is over populated and either we go back to living very simple primitive lives or we reduce our population and maintain our existing standard of living. No wants to raise that unsexy issue because the masses would sooner talk about cute sexy things like windmills, solar power and recycling cardboard.

[friend2truth]

Anthropogenic paving, killing, polluting, destroying are all easy to see and accelerating. Humans are amazing, but are on track to erase most of the other life on the planet, while also ruining the biosphere that creates an oxygenated, livable earth. If you are in denial about anthropogenic destruction, you are a huge part of the problem.

[David Mason]

How can you refute data which was gathered independently around the world, showed similar results and was peer-reviewed by academic sources?

[TheMenghi1]

I;ve read his Skeptical Environmentalist and was blown away by it. It is very logical and makes a good case for good stewardship of what we have. The world is not perfect, but surely not going to hell in a handbasket.

[charlesvan13]

When the next ice age comes we will welcome greenhouse warming.

Even the negative consequences wont be nearly as bad as most of North America and Europe and Siberia being burried benieth ice sheets.

[jetrpg22]

The NII did not fund one major step toward the internet. One could argue mosaic... but gore didn't create mosaic, and while mosaic was popular its predicessors were not government funded. Who were actually used by more than captive audiences in schools/unis.