Bjorn Lomborg, author of “The Skeptical Environmentalist”, has reversed his position on the ‘urgency’ of climate change. Although he always believed that global warming is real and is being caused by humans, he was critical of government spending and global policy initiatives to address this issue. His main thesis was that the human race should be more concerned with taking care of other issues, like AIDS research, malaria, poverty, etc.
Not anymore. Yahoo reports:
In a book to be published this year, Lomborg calls global warming “undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today” and calls for the world’s governments to invest tens of billions of dollars annually to fight climate change.
Lomborg’s former foes in the environmental movement are so far unimpressed by news of his conversion. Calling him a “shrewd self-promoter,” Grist.org’s Jonathan Hiskes marveled at Lomborg’s ability to “play the media” in simply “adopting a position already held by millions of sensible people.” And Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Mike Childs told the U.K. Guardian, “It appears that the self-styled skeptical environmentalist is beginning to become less skeptical as he enters middle age.”
I helped interview Lomborg for TIME.com in 2007. It was my first video shooting/editing gig at the news organization, but unfortunately the video producers never added this lowly intern’s name to the credits. Still, if you’re interested in hearing Lomborg’s previous views, watch it:
