Bjorn Lomborg

Virgin founder’s $3 billion climate pledge heralds new era in philanthropy

Richard Branson, founder and chair of the British conglomerate Virgin Group, has racked up more than his share of high-profile high jinks over the years. Among them, signing the notorious Sex Pistols to his young record label, dangling nearly nude over Times Square, and botching numerous transoceanic hot-air balloon expeditions, necessitating rescue by helicopter. But […]

Pretty much what you’d expect

As we speak, Sen. James Inhofe is on the floor of the Senate making a "major speech" called "Hot & Cold Media Spin: A Challenge To Journalists Who Cover Global Warming." The full transcript is not yet available, but you can see a press release with excerpts.

Or you can watch it live here.

At least at the moment, he's spouting the "it's not a problem but even if it were Kyoto wouldn't do anything because it's too weak" argument that I still fail to understand. If it's too weak, do something stronger. No?

More later.

Update: Now it's the "restricting dirty-energy development in the developing world would keep them poor forever" argument.

Update: Now he's citing Bjorn Lomborg, with whom he recently canoodled.

Update: Now he's saying global warming activism is cover for an insidious quest for global governance.

Update: Now it's the "technology is the answer, especially nukes" argument.

Update: Now it's the "scientists used to predict global cooling" argument. More on that here. In short: no they didn't.

Update: Ooh, now a cheap shot at Gore, saying he's just using global warming to get in the White House. Yeah, that makes sense.

Update: I've counted about 50 uses of the words "alarmist" and "hysteric" so far.

Update: Apparently James Hansen, legendary climate scientist, is nothing but a "political activist."

Update: Now he's attacking NYT's Andy Revkin for writing a children's book.

Update: "Balance" is slowly catching up to "alarmism" and "hysteria."

Update: Gore's An Inconvenient Truth is one of the "sickest scientific propaganda films" ever. Sick! He's quoting Richard Lindzen about the movie. For "balance," you know.

Now it's a droning recitation of alleged errors in Gore's film -- all of which have been debunked ad nauseum. Wonder if his fellow senators know that, though.

All right, I gotta go to a meeting. All I'll say is, debunking all the bullshit in this speech would require a long, long, long time. I'll be back later with the transcript.

Paging a Mr. Lomborg

Who's the object of James Inhofe's latest literary crush?

Why, none other than our old friend Bjorn Lomborg!

Bjorn Lomborg and climate change mitigation

Bjørn Lomborg was one of this site's first targets. We still get emails about that series. Suffice to say, not much love is lost between he and Grist.

Still, Lomborg is widely influential, and the project behind his Copenhagen Consensus makes sense: figure out the most effective way to spend money to save lives and improve the world. I disagree with his conclusions and think the methodology has deep flaws, but the idea behind it is laudable.

Lomborg's got a new book out: a collection of essays called How to Spend 50 Billion, in which economists present their Copenhagen conclusions. What follows is an excerpt, with an introduction by Lomborg and parts of an essay by William R. Cline comparing various global warming mitigation strategies. Give it some thought and share your impressions in comments.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talk

This evening I saw Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speak at Seattle's Paramount theater, thanks to Foolproof's excellent "American Voices" program.

The guy is pretty amazing. For one thing -- and I'm not sure why this is the first thing that struck me -- he looks like a Kennedy! It's a little strange, like some PBS documentary or Discovery channel special come to life. And he speaks like a Kennedy too, obviously erudite but completely at ease with the kind of aspirational, inspirational rhetoric for which his father and uncle were known.

It's one of the more substantive one-hour public talks I've ever seen. His pleasantries lasted about 30 seconds (with a quick shout-out to local eco-hero Rep. Jay Inslee), and he was off and running full tilt -- few personal anecdotes or attempts at humor, no sugar, just fiber. That style might not be everybody's cup of tea, but I love it. There was no slack.

The basic theme of the talk was less environmental stuff than corporate power. Here are a few random notes and reflections, off the top of my head, in no particular order (all this stuff will, of course, be familiar to those who have seen him speak or read his book):

An interview with authors of the controversial essay “The Death of Environmentalism”

Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus stirred up quite a fuss when they unveiled their essay “The Death of Environmentalism” last fall, declaring the environmental movement kaput and calling for a more visionary and inspiring progressive movement to take its place. In an interview with Grist, Shellenberger and Nordhaus talk about their ideas, the responses they’ve […]

Kevin Doyle, environmental-career guru, answers questions

Kevin Doyle. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? I’m one of two national program directors at The Environmental Careers Organization (authors of the new book The ECO Guide to Careers That Make a Difference — see below). At least, that’s my current title. I’ve worked for ECO since 1984, and in that time I’ve […]

Bjorn again

Bjorn Lomborg has an editorial in yesterday's L.A. Times, presenting -- in extremely rudimentary form -- the results of his already notorious Copenhagen Consensus. While the composition of Lomborg's group and its specific conclusions have been harshly criticized -- in particular see John Quiggin's blog here, here, here, and here, and also this Disinfopedia entry -- it's worth saying that the enterprise itself is entirely worthy, if done properly and honestly.

It is true that aid money is not spent rationally. If it were possible to get a serious, empirical accounting of the world's problems from a wide variety of experts and use it to rationalize and prioritize spending, every enviro should be foursquare behind it, even if some enviro priorities get bumped down the list.

Sadly, Lomborg's enterprise bears little resemblance to that ideal.

Greens and big biz

"Green movement is big business," declares the headline of a Reuters article this week.  

The concept recalls Mac Chapin's ruckus-causing article in World Watch on conflicts of interest at the three big conservation groups, as mentioned by Geoff last week. (A fascinating read, by the way -- I may never think of the Big Three the same way again.)