In all his columns on Project Syndicate about how dangers of global warming are overblown, Bjorn Lomborg does not appear to have ever called for a carbon tax—at least, searching the website for "Bjorn Lomborg carbon tax" produces no hits, and I cannot recall a call for one. If he does, it's not a central part of his thought. I wonder why not. What's the upside to you of our not yet having implemented a carbon tax, Bjorn?: Bjørn Lomborg: Humans Can Survive Underwater https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/rising-sea-levels-media-alarmism-by-bjorn-lomborg-2019-11: 'Climate change is a problem we need to tackle, and we should be particularly mindful of how it will hurt the poorest in society. But the bigger, unreported story is that today’s climate policies will do very little to resolve the “challenge” of more people living below the high-tide mark.... Even when we read stories from the world’s top media outlets, we need to maintain perspective. Deaths from climate-related causes (floods, hurricanes, droughts, wildfire, and extreme temperatures) have declined by 95% over the past hundred years. Furthermore, despite the constant barrage of claims that the global climate crisis is spiraling out of control, the cost of extreme weather as a proportion of GDP has been declining since 1990. Alarming media stories that twist the facts about rising sea levels are dangerous because they scare people unnecessarily and push policymakers toward excessively expensive measures to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The real solution is to lift the world’s poorest out of poverty and protect them with simple infrastructure...


#noted #2019-12-17

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