Press notice

Sceptical Questions and Sustainable Answers

 

A response to Bjoern Lomborg’s "The Skeptical Environmentalist"

  

Bjoern Lomborg's book from August 2001 raised a huge debate in the media in most English speaking countries. It was received very positively by some sections of the media e.g The Guardian and The Economist. However, the book was heavily criticized in Science, Scientific American and Nature in the beginning of this year.

In the Danish Ecological Council, we felt a more thorough response to Bjoern Lomborg’s book was needed. Therefore we gathered a group of twelve Danish scientists – from science as well as economics and social science – and they have written such a response. In 1999 we issued a book in Danish as a response to Lomborg’s Danish book from 1998. Now we have just completed a response in English to "The Skeptical Environmentalist". We will publish our response as a book and on the Internet – www.ecocouncil.dk - on 28th of June.

We are presenting the response at a

Press meeting at Church House, Dean’s Yard, Westminster, SW 1P 3 NZ in London on the 28th of June, 10.30 AM

Two of the authors – Kaare Fog, biologist, and Christian Ege Joergensen, environmental scientist, both from Denmark – will present the response, while Terry Barker, Dep. of Applied Economics, Cambridge will present his critique of Lomborg’s chapter on costs and the greenhouse effect.

 

Christian Ege Joergensen, M.sc., Director
THE ECOLOGICAL COUNCIL

 

They read “Sceptical Questions and Sustainable Answers”:

 “In light of the omissions, distortions, and misrepresentations of published work that plague The Skeptical Environmentalist, I believe that a strong and measured scientific response is necessary. In this volume, authors across a range of research fields present an excellent overview of the empirical evidence which sets the record straight.”

Jeffrey A. Harvey, Senior Scientist, Department of Multitrophic Interactions, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Centre for Terrestrial Ecology, Heteren

"This is a detailed and compelling response, rich in examples and thoughtful analyses, that rebuts the superficial and biased book of Bjorn Lomborg. This deserves to be read -- especially by those initially convinced by Lomborg."

Stuart Pimm, Professor of Conservation Biology,  Center for Environmental Research and Conservation, Columbia University, New York

 This is a considered and thoughtful response to Lomborg's halfbaked and deliberately provocative tirade against environmental ideas and policies.
Terry Barker, Senior Reseach Associate, Department of Applied Economics, University of Cambridge, UK


Introduction to

Sceptical Questions and Sustainable Answers

Twelve Danish scientists – with backgrounds in natural as well as social sciences and economics – go over many of the subjects covered by “The Skeptical Environmentalist”. The state of the world is assessed in terms of resources of energy and raw materials, population growth, biodiversity, forests, fisheries and fish stocks, green house effect and climate change, acid rain and chemicals.

En route, they expose the methods used by Bjoern Lomborg. In his book, Lomborg concludes that the state of the environment is improving on most counts and also that many actions taken to improve the environment, including the Kyoto protocol, are waste of money. However, Lomborg often reaches his conclusions by excluding statistical uncertainty and by comparing figures calculated on different assumptions. For example, he states that the total area of the world´s forests has been constant or maybe even increased a little, allegedly on the basis of official data from the FAO. However, this is based on FAO data which, according to FAO itself, are very uncertain and even unreliable. FAO data, which are more reliable, show the opposite - viz. that the forest area is steadily declining.

Lomborg claims that instead of trying to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, it is more economically efficient to wait and see the climate change and repair the damage. However, this conclusion is based on dubious assumptions, e.g. discounting principles that makes costs in the distant future insignificant compared to costs today, and global comparisons showing that – due to the low income levels and therefore low ability of payment in developing countries – the damage here is of low significance compared to abatement costs in industrialised countries.

The many pages and notes in “The Skeptical Environmentalist” successfully convinced the editors of several journals and newspapers. However, no one should conclude on the basis of Lomborg’s book without also reading “Sceptical questions and sustainable answers”.