Legal Commentary

A Lomborg About-Face on Warming?

By Jonathan H. Adler

The Guardian reports on an ?apparent U-turn? by Bjorn Lomborg, the ?skeptical environmentalist,? on the issue of global climate change. (See also here.) The stories report that Lomborg has a new book, due out this fall, in which he calls global warming ?one of the chief concerns facing the world today? and urges adoption of a carbon tax to finance $100 billion in  R&D for climate-friendly technologies, and $50 billion in climate adaptation.  Tyler Cowen notes the story with  a post titled ?Lomborg v. Lomborg,? and TNR?s Bradford Plumer calls Lomborg?s new position ?a pretty striking about-face,? and suggests it may be a cynical ploy to sell books.

Yet Lomborg?s new position is not much of ?U-turn,? striking or otherwise.  Lomborg has acknowledged the reality of human-induced warming in all of his books, while discounting some of the more apocalyptic scenarios.  In his 2007 book Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist?s Guide to Global Warming (which I reviewed here), he declared that climate change was a ?problem? and recommended a strikingly similar response.  Specifically, he called for the imposition of a carbon tax and urged a global commitment to financing climate-friendly R&D to the tune of $25 billion per year.  His new proposal is more ambitious ? a larger tax to fund even more research ? but otherwise is much the same.  So, too, is his overall message: Climate change is one of many problems the world faces, must compete with other priorities, and should be addressed in a cost-effective manner.  Perhaps what?s really changed is not Lomborg?s perspective, but the degree to which commentators actually pay attention to what he writes.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on August 31, 2010 (boomark / email).