Bjorn Lomborg, named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in April 2004, is an adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, and author of The Skeptical Environmentalist and his newest Cool It (Knopf). Cool It challenges our understanding of the environment and global warming and suggests that statements about the strong, ominous, and immediate consequences of global warming are often wildly exaggerated. Lomborg believes we need a stronger focus on smart solutions rather than excessive if well-intentioned efforts and thinks we must put global warming in perspective.

Time for a Smarter Approach to Global Warming - Wall Street Journal publishes Bjorn Lomborg's latest editorial (Dec 15, 2009): http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704517504574589952331068322.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

T.E.D. Video - Priorities for Spending 50 Billion Dollars: AIDS vs. Global Warming: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/bjorn_lomborg_sets_global_priorities.html

   “Al Gore and the many people he has inspired have goodwill and great intentions,” says Lomborg. “But the problem is we will end up choosing very bad policies to solve problems we agree need attention if we follow his recommendations.”

   The Skeptical Environmentalist had its genesis in 1998, when Lomborg worked as an associate professor of statistics at the Department of Political Science at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. He published four lengthy articles about the state of the environment in a leading Danish newspaper, which resulted in a firestorm debate spanning over 400 articles in major metropolitan newspapers. The articles led to the publication of The Skeptical Environmentalist in 2001, which has now been published in every major language in the world.

   Bjorn Lomborg has lectured around the world and is a frequent participant in the current climate debate, with commentaries in such publications as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Times (London), The Australian, and The Economist. He has also appeared on CNN, BBC, CNBC, ABC, and PBS.

   In May 2004, Lomborg cofounded the "Copenhagen Consensus,” bringing together some of the world’s top economists in a forum to discuss challenges facing the world. “If we want to do good,” Lomborg asserts, “we need to ask the question where should we start?’”

   In 2006, Lomborg became the director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, and a forum for the center held that same year brought together United Nations Ambassadors who, together, represented about half of the world's population.

   In his highly informative and well-researched presentations, Lomborg challenges widely held beliefs and addresses the most serious challenges facing the world today. He systematically examines today’s most important global crisis issues and offers sustainable solutions. Lomborg presented his views before the United States Congress in the joint hearing “Perspective on Climate Change,” of the House committees on Energy and Commerce and on Science and Technology. He testified second, after Al Gore.

   Lomborg continues to be widely recognized for his integral contributions to society. In 2008, he was named one of the world's 75 most influential people of the 21st century by Esquire, one of the ’’50 people who could save the planet’’ by the UK Guardian, and one of the top 100 public intellectuals by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazine. From February 2002 to July 2004 Lomborg was director of Denmark's national Environmental Assessment Institute. During this period he was named one of the "50 stars of Europe" (as one of the 9 "agenda setters" in Europe) in Business Week.

Topics:

1) The Truth About Global Warming/Cool It

   Bjorn Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions now being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, are often based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions, and may very well have little impact on the world's temperature for hundreds of years. Rather than starting with the most radical procedures, Lomborg argues that we should first focus our resources on more immediate concerns, such as fighting malaria and HIV/AIDS and assuring and maintaining a safe, fresh water supply—which can be addressed at a fraction of the cost and save millions of lives within our lifetime. He asks why the debate over climate change has stifled rational dialogue and killed meaningful dissent.

   Lomborg presents us with a second generation of thinking on global warming that believes panic is neither warranted nor a constructive place from which to deal with any of humanity's problems, not just global warming.

2) Resource Allocation

3) How to Make Your Environmental Efforts Count

4) Feeling Good vs. Doing Good

Related Speakers:
Howard Bloom - "The Darwin, Einstein, Newton and Freud of the 21st Century” Author of The Genius of the Beast - Why Michael Moore is Dead Wrong About Capitalism - See also Howard's Climate Change editorial in December 17, 2009 Wall Street Journal on this link.

Majora Carter - Green Collar Sustainable Development

Andrew Winston - Author of Green to Gold

Richard Heinberg - Peak Oil/Energy Authority: Author of Blackout: Coal, Climate, and the Last Energy Crisis

David Gottfried - Green Building LEED Pioneer