« Learning Africa's stories: Chris Abani on TED.com | Main | A freak blog migrates into an institution »
12 August 2007
Wired's Anderson on Lomborg's "Cool It"
Wired editor Chris Anderson got an advance copy of Bjorn Lomborg's upcoming book Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming, and his summary is: read it, but don't follow his advice.
Lomborg (watch his TED2005 speech) argues that although global warming is clearly happening and is human-caused, the debate over what to do about it has been polluted by way too much bad science, non-science, inflamed rhetoric and outright fibs.
In the book, the Danish political scientist offers numerous examples of how much of the rhetoric over the effects of climate change doesn't stand up to scrutiny (for example: the most likely effect of climate change would be to increase, not decrease, the amount of ice in Antarctica).
"It's time to put the debate over whether human-driven climate change is happening behind us and instead focus on technologies to decarbonize the economy," writes Anderson. But climate change is only one of three strong reasons to do this, he adds: the others are economics (rising direct and indirect costs of oil and carbon fuels) and geopolitics (oil revenues prop up bad governments around the world).
There is a fourth reason that Anderson forgets, and which has been convincingly put forth by Al Gore in his TED2006 speech: it's a moral imperative.
Discuss this Blog Post
Loading Comments... 

Become a Fan of TED
on Facebook

Follow TED on Twitter:
@TEDNews | @TEDTalks

Subscribe to TED RSS feeds:
TED Blog | More RSS Options
Recent Comments
BrokenPen on You asked Seth Godin absolutely anything -- and he answered
swaroopch on The Buzz: Shukla Bose inspires with her story of education
joa1 on How to feed the whole world (the case for white bread): Louise Fresco on TED.com
Christmas on Ze Frank: "Santa ain't fat"
areks on The Buzz: Sunitha Krishnan on the human face of human trafficking
nivashkumar on The Buzz: Pranav Mistry awakens the Sixth Sense
krishnamurthir on The Buzz: Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev meditates on majestic chaos
krishnamurthir on The Buzz: Pranav Mistry awakens the Sixth Sense
nivashkumar on The Buzz: Sunitha Krishnan on the human face of human trafficking
twentytwo on Rebuilding broken states: Ashraf Ghani on TED.com
News from TED
Learn about TEDIndia conference >>
Find all our posts about TEDGlobal 2009 >>
Follow the TED Fellows blog >>
Throw your own TED-style event with TEDx >>
TED takeaway
TED ringtones:
TEDTalks Classic tune in [mp3] [m4r]
TEDTalks Phase II tune in [mp3] [m4r]
Subscribe to TED's weekly newsletter
Get the latest news on the TED Prize on TEDPrize.org >>
Archives
TED Bloggers
Chris Anderson | Curator
June Cohen | Director of TED Media
Amy Novogratz | TED Prize Director
Tom Rielly | Community
Bruno Giussani | TED European Director
Jason Wishnow | Director, Film + Video
Emily McManus | Editor, TED.com
Matthew Trost | Assistant Editor, TED.com
Shanna Carpenter | Writer and Community Organizer, TED.com
Diego Rodriguez | Guestblogger
Jane Wulf | TED Scribe
Blogs we watch
+ TEDPrize.org
+ TED Fellows blog
+ Thomas Dolby | TED Musical Director, blogging at ThomasDolby.com
+ Emeka Okafor | TEDAfrica Director, blogging at Timbuktu Chronicles and Africa Unchained
+ The indispensable Global Voices
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Powered by Movable Type






