Headline, June24, 2013

'''COOL IT - MAN - KOOL IT -BABY- '''

In 2001,  Danish Political Scientist Bjorn Lomborg  { he is also the founder of Copenhagen Consensus and an adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School } published to great controversy :  ''The Skeptical Environmentalist'', in which he examined whether proposed solutions to environmental damage could actually be worse than the damage itself.

The book served as both an earnest appeal to save the environment and a bracing rejection of the rhetorical excesses and some of the dire prognostication of the environmental movement. The same year, on the same day, that Al Gore testified before the House and Senate Committees on climate change, Lomborg also testified, cast in the villain's role. 

Although he agrees with the broad scientific consensus that climate change is real and man-made, he does not agree with many of the solutions Gore and others call for, dismissing them as needlessly extreme and not not cost-efficient. For this he has been called a Heretic and a stooge for the Oil Companies. But then came Lomborg's new book, Cool it: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming.

He wrote it, as he letter disclosed, because, ''there is a lot of well-intentioned passion in this discussion, but campaigner's on both sides spend so much time lobbing bitter arguements at each other that their debate has scorched the middle ground where the policy makers should find ideas and inspirations.""

Lomborg ignores the impact of rising sea levels : '' Those who believe climate change is nonsense will be cheered by my conclusion that many of the climate scare stories don't add up. Melting ice isn't going to push-up sea levels by 20 feet. As the United Nations Climate Panel points out, the true sea level rise will be about one foot over the century. 

But disbelievers of climate change science will undoubtedly scoff at my finding that temperature increases are real and human caused. The facts are unavoidable. There are rising sea levels and problems ahead. Yet we need to get a sense of proportion, and not call a problem a catastrophe.''

Lamborg says that thousands of more Heat-Related deaths every years is no big deal : ''Environmental groups claim that the 2003 heat wave that devastated Europe was just the beginning. In a sense, they are right. Global warming will bring more heat waves and more deaths in summertime. However, the biggest temperature increases will occur in winter  -and the cold is a much bigger killer than the heat.

With temperatures expected to climb more than 3 degrees in Britain by mid-century, there will be 2000 more heat-related deaths a year there. But there will be 20,000 fewer deaths caused by the cold. On balance, rising temperatures will save 18,000 lives a year. Focusing exclusively on the 2000 deaths does not does not give us a good basis for making sound policy.''

Lamborg just wants to do nothing :  ''Saying that Kyoto and feeling good measures are rotten ideas is different from saying that we should ignore the problem. Doing nothing would be wrong. We shouldn't throw ourselves headlong into poor solutions. But it would just as bad to stick our heads into into the sand.
The solution in the long run is to stop using fossil fuels altogether. To get there requires not just goodwill but smart economics. We need to make it cost effective to cut emissions.

This requires us to have much better technologies, not only for solar and wind but also for carbon capture and energy conservation. I propose that our  generational challenge should be for very nation to commit to spending 0.025 percentage of its GDP researching and developing non-carbon emitting technologies. 

The cost would be $25 billion increasing R&D by ten times, Yet it would still be seven times cheaper than the Kyoto Protocol and possibly a hundred times cheaper than Kyoto II.

Every nation should do its bit, with the richer nations paying the larger share. Instead of crushing innovation and enterprise for the good of the planet, we could realize a low carbon, high income future.''

Lamborg is a Heretic : '' Undoubtedly, many people on both sides of the arguement will react with fury to my book   -after all the debate over climate change right now, is very shrill. I have been called a Heretic before, but if focusing on the sound, common-sense ideas in the middle makes me a Heretic of the church  - then so be it.''

Thank you, Professor, for being Man Enough!

With respectful dedication to all the Students and Great Professors of Denmark.

See you all on !WOW! The World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless: Where We Don't Build Fences :

Tear Down That Damn Wall!

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless