Climate & Nature...

Bjørn Lomborg is a Danish author, academic, and environmentalist. He is an adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, and Director of Copenhagen Consensus Center. In 2007, he published “Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Climate Change,” a book that offers a fresh perspective on global warming by incorporating human needs as well as economics into its plan to address climate change.

Lomborg’s visionary approach to the global climate crisis has earned him international acclaim, as well as appearances on Larry King, 20/20, The Colbert Report, 60 Minutes, BBC Newsnight, and a host of others. In 2008, Lomborg was named one of the “50 people who could save the planet” by the UK Guardian, and one of the “top 100 public intellectuals” by Foreign Policy and Prospect Magazine. Lomborg continues to be one of the most prominent and exciting environmental thinkers of our time.

In an essay entitled “The Future of the World,” Lomborg outlines some of his positions on reversing the effects of climate change, charging his readers not to focus on the problems our planet faces, but, rather, to look to our accomplishments as a source of inspiration. Lomborg points out that, over the course of the last century, malnutrition has dropped significantly, poverty has been cut in half, illiteracy rates are way down, and access to clean drinking water has been dramatically improved. Lomborg argues that, while it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the challenges the future holds, we must use our accomplishments as inspiration to continue to improve our world over the coming generations.

Lomborg also asserts that we shouldn’t focus our efforts solely on undoing global warming from an exclusively environmental perspective. Rather, we should strive to improve the global economy and bolster individual wealth, and environmental stability will follow. As an example, Lomborg points out that indoor air pollution is the single most pressing environmental problem, responsible for about 1.5 million deaths annually. Rather than certifying the dung that many impoverished families use to heat their homes, Lomborg proposes making these people “rich enough to afford kerosene.” Improving the global economy will lead to better environmental conditions around the world, and Lomborg is eager to guide the effort toward achieving global prosperity.

For more information on Bjørn Lomborg, go to www.lomborg.com.