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Interesting talk. Lomborg is not just a skeptic, he accepts warming as true and probably caused by humans, but his talk focuses on solving problem rather than w

Interesting talk. Lomborg is not just a skeptic, he accepts warming as true and probably caused by humans, but his talk focuses on solving problem rather than wasting effort on carbon reductions. For example, if people are dying in heat waves and your goal is to actually save lives, cutting carbon will do next to nothing, but things like trees and water in cities (or air conditioning) would save many lives and be vastly less expensive. It makes you wonder what people's real goals are.

gibsonf1 18y ago
I was really impressed with the polar bear example. Some scientists believe that by mid-century, 1 polar bear will die every year because of warming. At the same time, we are killing 300-400 bears a year by shooting them. Wouldn't the better solution to spending 180bil a year be to shoot fewer bears? :)
- Prrometheus 18y ago
  All articles I have seen talking about polar bears and global warming have made it seem like they were going to go extinct because of it. It is sobering to think about how misleading journalism is.
newt0311 18y ago
The efforts of most environmentalists become a lot easier to comprehend if you think of environmentalism and global warming as a religion.
- netcan 18y ago
  I think this is an inevitable consequence of politicisation. Economics, for example is much more of a religion in countries (like the US) where the cold war had that sort of a political impact. In some places, history is more of a religion.
- davidw 18y ago
  I don't know... I grew up in Oregon, and used to ride my mountain bike around in places like this: http://local.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=43.939069,-123.437147&spn=0.038628,0.11158&t=h&z=14 http://local.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=43.939069,-123.43714... and as a consequence am quite willing to believe that people can have far ranging, destructive consequences, and am willing to consider the fact that current environmental policy may do a poor job of dealing with certain negative externalities. Posts like this one, though, are yet more evidence of why these discussions are pointless. "Environmentalism is a religion" hah! Good one! In one snarky sentence, you get to call a broad and diverse movement (which ranges from people who are a bit bonkers to plenty of very reasonable people) a bunch of illogical doodyheads. Gee, if only more people would tell them this, maybe they'd see the light.

gibsonf1 18y ago

I was really impressed with the polar bear example. Some scientists believe that by mid-century, 1 polar bear will die every year because of warming. At the same time, we are killing 300-400 bears a year by shooting them. Wouldn't the better solution to spending 180bil a year be to shoot fewer bears? :)

Prrometheus 18y ago
All articles I have seen talking about polar bears and global warming have made it seem like they were going to go extinct because of it. It is sobering to think about how misleading journalism is.

newt0311 18y ago

The efforts of most environmentalists become a lot easier to comprehend if you think of environmentalism and global warming as a religion.

netcan 18y ago
I think this is an inevitable consequence of politicisation. Economics, for example is much more of a religion in countries (like the US) where the cold war had that sort of a political impact. In some places, history is more of a religion.
davidw 18y ago
I don't know... I grew up in Oregon, and used to ride my mountain bike around in places like this: http://local.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=43.939069,-123.437147&spn=0.038628,0.11158&t=h&z=14 http://local.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=43.939069,-123.43714... and as a consequence am quite willing to believe that people can have far ranging, destructive consequences, and am willing to consider the fact that current environmental policy may do a poor job of dealing with certain negative externalities. Posts like this one, though, are yet more evidence of why these discussions are pointless. "Environmentalism is a religion" hah! Good one! In one snarky sentence, you get to call a broad and diverse movement (which ranges from people who are a bit bonkers to plenty of very reasonable people) a bunch of illogical doodyheads. Gee, if only more people would tell them this, maybe they'd see the light.