Alfred A. Knopf
Cool it; the skeptical environmentalist's guide to global warming.
While the fact of anthropogenic global warming is certainly beyond debate, argues Lomborg (an economist at the Copenhagen Business School, Denmark), the nature of our response to it is not. He warns that "hysterical" spending on extravagant carbon dioxide reduction programs as envisioned by the Kyoto Protocol is a wasteful option, especially in comparison to the good that could be done by diverting extra resources to global priorities identified by the 2004 Copenhagen Consensus of economists. These include control of HIV AIDS, addressing malnutrition, trade liberalization, control of malaria, development of new agricultural technologies, research on water productivity in food production, and lowering the cost of starting a new business. According to the Copenhagen Consensus, all of these are good to very good opportunities, while carbon taxes and the Kyoto Protocol are bad opportunities. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
