Man-made global warming is real. The solutions being touted are not

5 December 2009

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The pledges many countries will make on greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen are pure fantasy, says Bjørn Lomborg. We must pursue other options

Judging by the opinion polls, those gathering at the Copenhagen climate change summit have a lot of persuading to do. Just two in five Brits think that global warming is taking place and is man-made. Only one third of Americans think that humans are responsible for climate change. The number of Australians who deem global warming a ‘serious and pressing problem’ has dropped sharply. The urgency which grips politicians around the world seems not to be shared by the general public — to the frustration of people like David Miliband, Britain’s Foreign Secretary. This, he says, demonstrates that the public ‘lack a sense of urgency’.

Yet against the backdrop of a global economic crisis, it is understandable that people everywhere have become more sceptical about policies that stand to cost them a fortune — and, crucially, help the planet very little. We have been shown the terrifying adverts, and the chilling warnings that global warming will be worse than scientists expect. But people are still not convinced. So instead of ‘fixing the public’, we should now try to engineer a better, more effective response to this challenge.

I write as someone who once took it for granted that the world was in a terrible environmental state. My thinking started to change when I analysed the data, and I believe there is cause for optimism. However, it is clear that global warming is real — and that it is man-made.

We owe it to future generations to respond appropriately. And I believe that there are much better, more cost-effective ways to fight global warming than carbon reduction. Also, if we want to fight the problems that will be exacerbated by global warming, the solutions have very little to do with cutting CO2 emissions.

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