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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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 OPINION 
23

Gore's Climate Crusade Misguided, Wasteful

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(Newser) – Global warming is real, but Al Gore’s crusade to curb carbon emissions is misguided and will squander money that could be applied cheaply and efficiently to those problems now, Danish statistician Bjørn Lomborg writes in Esquire. “Here’s the truth: There are better, more cost-effective ways to fight global warming,” Lomborg writes. And “the solutions have very little to do with cutting CO2 emissions.”

“We will never succeed in making fossil fuels so expensive that they become unappealing,” Lombord writers of carbon taxes. Rather, new, clean technologies should get funding. As for the specters of disease and famine Gore raises, Lomborg has cheap solutions: Bug nets. Iron supplements. “Every time the Gore solution of CO2 reduction saves one person from dying from malaria in the future, the same money could save 36,000 people today.”

The Schwarze Pumpe coal power plant in Spremberg, eastern Germany.
The Schwarze Pumpe coal power plant in Spremberg, eastern Germany.   (AP Photo)
Environmental activists abseil down the side of a smokestack after painting
Environmental activists abseil down the side of a smokestack after painting "Stop CO2" on the side of the chimney of the coal-fired power plant in Belchatow, Poland.   (AP Photo)
Sunflower Electric Cooperative's coal-fired power plant in Holcomb, Kan.
Sunflower Electric Cooperative's coal-fired power plant in Holcomb, Kan.   (AP Photo)
Former US vice president Al Gore wipes sweat off as Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd speaks during a joint press conference in Sydney.
Former US vice president Al Gore wipes sweat off as Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd speaks during a joint press conference in Sydney.   (AP Photo)
Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg.
Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg.   (AP Photo)
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If we spent $800 billion over the next ninety years solely on the Gore solution of mitigating carbon emissions, we would rein in temperature increases by just 0.3 degrees by the end of this century.
- Bjørn Lomborg

Germany is the leading consumer of solar panels and will end up spending about $150 billion on them, yet the effect will be to delay global warming by one hour by the end of the century. - Bjørn Lomborg

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23 comments
VIEWING:
 
JonmarkP
Jul 15, 09 3:48 PM CDT
Yes, but Gore's solution provides enormous new profits for Wall Street, carbon traders, banks, and others of the investment class. That's far more important than actually solving the problem, is it not? Reply
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+1
IN RESPONSE:
entourage
Jul 16, 09 8:18 AM CDT
"It would be grossly immoral to knowingly squander colossal sums of money achieving almost nothing, while comparatively tiny sums could save millions of lives right now." Bjørn Lomborg doesn't understand that overpopulation/(reduction of it) is part of the agenda, and that 'saving lives' is not. It's all about profit.
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-1
Jayster999
Jul 15, 09 3:50 PM CDT
Gore's cap and trade eco-credit scam is a way for Gore and those on his bandwagon to make obscene amounts of money at the expense of everyone else. It is perhaps the most well orchestrated swindle of all time. Reply
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+5
IN RESPONSE:
kokuaguy
Jul 15, 09 9:10 PM CDT
It's not "Gore's Cap & Trade" except to the extent that he supports it knowing it's the only thing the current administration can get through our bought and paid for legislative system dominated by political whores and outright criminals. If he'd have become president in 2000 we'd have joined the Kyoto process and perhaps lead the worldwide effort needed to convince China and India to step up to the plate. If the current crop of Cap & Traders are going to get rich off of the efforts to begin to address the coming climate catastrophe, why the fuck should Gore be disqualified from joining in? This is one Liberal Fascist who would do so in a heartbeat if I could figure out how. His presidency and his legacy were stolen from him, and we all stood by and watched when we should have had the courage of the Iranians and gone into the streets and stayed there till the traitors on the Supreme Court "reconsidered" the worst decision ever made in the history of this pathetic, benighted nation of whiners and couch potatoes. I guess I got that off my chest.
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+4
IN RESPONSE:
2-bits
Jul 15, 09 9:13 PM CDT
That was pretty epic, kg.
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