Articles from 2010

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Europe needs real vision on climate 
Financial Times, 10 December: Barring last-minute upsets, the climate conference in Cancún will close on Friday having delivered on expectations that it would achieve nothing meaningful. As negotiators, commentators and campaigners head home, attention will turn to what happens next.     

Can Anything Serious Happen in Cancun? 
Wall Street Journal, 12 November: The upcoming climate summit promises more proposals that ignore economic reality. This time a year ago, passionate activists told us that we had just weeks left to save the planet. The looming Copenhagen climate change summit in December 2009 was, they claimed, our "last chance" to avert catastrophic global warming.

A Return to Reason
Project Syndicate, 10 November: Common sense was an early loser in the scorching battle over the reality of man-made global warming. For nearly 20 years, one group of activists argued - in the face of ever-mounting evidence - that global warming was a fabrication. Their opponents, meanwhile, exaggerated the phenomenon's likely impact - and, as a consequence, dogmatically fixated on drastic, short-term carbon cuts as the only solution, despite overwhelming evidence that such cuts would be cripplingly expensive and woefully ineffective.

What Have Climate Activists Learned?
Project Syndicate, 12 October: Advocates of drastic cuts in carbon-dioxide emissions now speak a lot less than they once did about climate change. Climate campaigners changed their approach after the collapse of the Copenhagen climate-change summit last December and the revelation of mistakes in the United Nations climate-panel´s work - as well as in response to growing public skepticism and declining interest.  

Smarter Thinking on Climate Change
Project Syndicate, 10 September: Politicians and commentators are understandably pessimistic about the chances of an international deal on carbon cuts emerging from the United Nations summit in Mexico this December. Nothing has been resolved since the Copenhagen climate talks fell apart last year. Fortunately, recent research points to a smarter way to tackle climate change.

Who's Afraid of Climate Change?
Project Syndicate, 11 August: Imagine that over the next 70 or 80 years, a giant port city - say, Tokyo - found itself engulfed by sea levels rising as much as 15 feet or more. Millions of inhabitants would be imperiled, along with trillionsof dollars worth of infrastructure.

Affordable Green Energy
Project Syndicate, 14 July: Public skepticism about ´global warming may be growing, but the scientific consensus is as solid as ever: man-made climate change is real, and we ignore it at our peril. But if that issue is settled (and it should be), there is an equally large and important question that remains wide open: what should we do about it?

The EU's response to global warming is a costly mistake
The Telegraph, 7 July: Europe's 20/20/20 policy will cost billions of pounds, but yield only tiny results, writes Bjorn Lomborg. European leaders have a lot to deal with. The financial crisis has prompted several national stimulus packages and a joint effort to keep Greece afloat, while the EU is in danger of being outstripped by other economies that are growing faster, producing more efficiently and at lower costs.

Europe’s Determination to Decline
Project Syndicate: In a heroic case of finding a silver lining in the bleakest of all situations, the European Union climate commissioner has concluded that the global economic crisis and recession actually provided a lucky break for everyone.

Taking Sense About Global Warming
Project Syndicate: In February, 14 distinguished climate scientists, economists, and policy experts came together to discuss how to tackle global warming.

Earth Day: Smile, don't shudder
USA Today: Given all the talk of impending catastrophe, this may come as a surprise, but as we approach the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day, people who care about the environment have a lot to celebrate. Of course, that's not how the organizers of Earth Day 2010 see it.

Obama Gets Reasonable on the Environment
The Wall Street Journal: President Obama shocked many supporters last month by proposing to expand offshore oil and gas exploration along the U.S. East Coast. The obvious explanation among outraged environmentalists was that the White House was playing politics with ecologically fragile coastlines.

Stumbling in the Dark    
Project Syndicate: 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.

Cars, Bombs and Climate Change
Project Syndicate: For the better part of a decade, I have upset many climate activits by pointing out that there are far better ways to stop global warming than trying to persuade governments to force or bribe their citizens into slashing their...

Climate Science or Climate Evangelism?
Project Syndicate: As George W. Bush and Tony Blair learned the hard way, the public does not take kindly to being misled about the nature of potential threats.

Climate Strategy on a Road to Nowhere
The Globe and Mail: Like many countries, Canada has grappled with how to respond effectively to climate change. The federal government has reportedly contemplated both a cap-and-trade carbon emission reduction scheme...

Two Cheer for China's Climate Obstruction
Project Syndicate: Since the Copenhagen climate summit's failure, many politicians and pundits have pointed the finger at China's leaders for blocking a binding, global carbon-mitigation treaty.