Fishing about in the Skeptic Tank

John Quiggin posts on the Copenhagen consensus, a project of Bjorn Lomborg’s to attempt to prioritise the problems developing countries face. Lomborg is the author of “The Skeptical Environmentalist”, cautioning the environmental lobby for overstating their case. It came up yesterday in a discussion among intellectual giants, or more accurately a natter over a yard of ale with a bunch of old school mates.

The post is as ever worth a look, but better yet is his essay on Lomborg’s cost-benefit analysis of Kyoto “or something even grander”. It’s here. It’s charges include:

Overestimation of the costs of Kyoto by large factors

His analysis turns out to “reduce the value of costs incurred in 50 years time by a factor of around 10”, from what a standard calculation of the rate of discount would produce.

“Lomborg ignores … completely” the ecological costs of climate change

Reliance on those economic experts who support his view, without consideration to those (numerous) who do not.

and there more…. of course, you needn’t take this at face value either. But let’s all keep informed.

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