Credit…Charlotte Carlberg Bärg
Bjorn Lomborg, confirmed climate denier, has written a new book, ‘False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet.’ Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate economist, reviews it for The New York Times on July 16, 2020. He demolishes Lomborg’s arguments one by one. Lomborg vastly overstates the costs of combating climate change and vastly undervalues both the benefits of curbing the climate crisis and the risks of failing to do so. He uses an unrealistic discount rate to argue against spending now for future benefit. Lomborg claims there’s a consensus for inaction on climate, but the United Nation’s authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) argues forcefully for immediate action. Lomborg’s book wants to convince readers worried about climate change that it’s all hype, no action needed. Stiglitz warns that Lomborg’s book would be dangerous for the gullible or ill-informed.
