Global Crises, Global Solutions

by Bjørn Lomborg (Editor)

This volume provides a uniquely rich set of arguments and data for prioritizing our responses to some of the most serious problems facing the world today, such as climate change, communicable diseases, conflicts, education, financial instability, corruption, migration, malnutrition and hunger, trade barriers, and water access. Leading economists evaluate the evidence for costs and benefits of various programs to help gauge how we can achieve the most good with our money. Each problem is introduced by a world-renowned expert analyzing the scale of the problem and describing the costs and benefits of a range of policy options to improve the situation. Shorter pieces from experts offering alternative positions are also included; all ten challenges are evaluated by a panel of economists from North America, Europe, and China who rank the most promising policy options. Global Crises, Global Solutions provides a serious, yet accessible, springboard for debate and discussion and will be required reading for government employees, NGOs, scholars and students of public policy and applied economics, and anyone with a serious professional or personal interest in global development issues. Bjorn Lomborg is Associate Professor of Statistics at the University of Aarhus and the director of the Danish Environmental Assessment Institute. He is also the author of the controversial bestseller, The Skeptical Environmentalist (Cambridge, 2001).

Genres: Nonfiction, Economics, Science, Politics, Political Science, Business

670 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 25, 2004

About the author

Bjørn Lomborg is a Danish author and president of his think tank, the Copenhagen Consensus Center. He is former director of the Danish government's Environmental Assessment Institute (EAI) in Copenhagen. He became internationally known for his best-selling and controversial 2001 book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, in which he argues that many of the costly measures and actions adopted by scientists and policy makers to meet the challenges of global warming will ultimately have minimal impact on the world's rising temperature.

Reviews

[Harry Harman]

treating all lives as equally worthy, would simply show that we should be investing much more in the developing world– on the order of 50–80 per cent of our GDP

The scenarios with a sharp drop in carbon intensity (A1T and B1) are inconsistent with a business as usual baseline in which there is no carbon tax (or emissions ceiling)

utility-based discounting

Thereisa‘conveyorbelt’thatinvolves the sinking of cold water near the Arctic and upwelling of warm water in the Southern Atlantic, giving rise to the Gulf Stream which keeps northern Europe warm. Increased melting of polar ice could reduce the salinity and specific gravity of the cold water entering the ocean there, possibly shutting down the ocean conveyor belt.

[Andreas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great interdependent thinking

[Katy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost impossibly dense; however, the knowledge payoff from reading it is great.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

much better, offers some interesting thoughts on prioritizing solutions...