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From Copenhagen to ClimateGate, the context and controversy surrounding any discussion of global warming has proven a significant handicap. This week, a group of distinguished climate scientists, economists, and policy experts published The Hartwell Paper - the outcome of a meeting convened by The London School of Economics. Fundamentally re-framing climate policy, these experts argue for a radical change in approach, insisting that progress in confronting climate change is now possible because of the epic failure of international cooperation on policy in 2009. (Contributors to the Paper include the Press's own Professor Mike Hulme - who had been featured prominently in the coverage of the ClimateGate scandal and is author of Why We Disagree About Climate Change.) The Hartwell Paper proposes a three-pronged approach in objectives: ensuring energy access for all; ensuring that we develop in a manner that does not undermine the essential functioning of the Earth system; ensuring that our societies are adequately equipped to withstand the risks and dangers that come from all the vagaries of climate, whatever their cause may be. Learn more about their thesis on the LSE's homepage here. Delving into the discussion, Cambridge author Bjorn Lomborg aligns their findings with his own approach to climate change on The Project Syndicate. -------- TALKING SENSE ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING Bjorn Lomborg LONDON - In February, 14 distinguished climate scientists, economists, and policy experts came together to discuss how to tackle global warming. This week, the London School of Economics and Oxford University are publishing their conclusions. They are worth considering.
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Bjorn Lomborg, author of the internationally acclaimed The Skeptical Environmentalist, talks about stumbling in the dark during EARTH HOUR. In March, nearly a billion people participated – switching off their lights for an hour to raise awareness of global warming. Though sweet and well-intentioned, Lomborg argues that this movement lacked power in more ways than one. Pun intended. -------- Via The Project Syndicate Stumbling in the dark Bjorn Lomborg - 2010-04-01 SAO PAULO - As well-intentioned gestures go, Earth Hour is hard to beat. At the stroke of 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 27, nearly a billion people in more than 120 countries demonstrated their desire to do something about global warming by switching off their lights for an hour. In a show of official solidarity, the lights also went out at many of the planet’s most iconic landmarks, from the Opera House in Sydney to the Great Pyramid at Giza, not to mention Beijing’s Forbidden City, New York’s Empire State Building, London’s Big Ben, Paris’s Eiffel Tower, and the skylines of both Hong Kong and Las Vegas. What ever else it may be, Earth Hour is surely one of the most successful publicity stunts ever dreamed up. First organized in Sydney, Australia, in 2007 by the local chapter of the World Wildlife Fund, its popularity and the level of participation (both individual and official) that generates has exploded in recent years – to the point that there is barely a corner of the earth that the campaign hasn’t touched. As Greg Bourne, CEO of World Wildlife Fund in Australia, put it: “We have everyone from Casablanca to the safari camps of Namibia and Tanzania taking part.” But has Earth Hour actually done anything to halt – or even slow – global warming? Not so much. The event’s popularity is not hard to fathom. Who but the most die-hard global-warming denier could resist the notion, as Earth Hour’s American website phrased it this year, that merely “by flipping off your lights on March 27 at 8:30 p.m. local time you will be making the switch to a cleaner, more secure nation”? Needless to say, this was not quite the case. The main thing that anyone accomplished by turning off the lights at nighttime for an hour was to make it harder to see. Keep reading at The Project Syndicate > > >
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