Dr. L. Ramakrishnan
Moderator
At last I could finish studying "The Skeptical Environmentalist" by Bjorn Lomborg. My first reaction to this book - "amazing".
Throghout the "reading" of the book, I felt that some of my experiences as a Research Scientist (methods, selective use of data, discussions, conclusions etc.) are being confirmed again and again and Prof. Lomborg has done a great job bringing these out without being rude and crude. His thesis is simple: "Environental issues do exist; many times the (potential) effects of these issues get exaggerated. Our resources to address global issues are limited. We have to prioritize the spending of resources based on the short term and long term benefits to the world". For example, you decide if you would like to save a Polar bear by spending billions of dollars on Climate Change research or save 100s of polar bears by simply banning hunting of Polar bears. Or would you spend trillions of dollars on reducing GHG emissions to reduced global warming by a fraction of a degree in fifty years or spend a few million dollars in conducting research on solar cells to make them economically attractive so that they can eventually replace the carbon based energy solutions. Prof. Lomborg's analysis is "fantastic" to say the least.
I have been an "environmentalist" for more than twenty two years; I often thought of some of the claims of my colleagues as "dogmatic". Now I have someone who, through scientific analysis of data, proves that my thoughts were valid. I think Prof. Lomborg provides us a way of balancing our concern for real issues with those emotionally loaded rhetorics.
What are, then, the real issues ? I would refer you to Prof. Lomborg's "Copenhagen Consensus", identifying top priority issues that the world has to address (http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/Default.aspx?ID=788).
I am quite happy to see someone thinking differently, not joining the popular bandwagon; "thinking differently" is Environmental Management about. While praising the effort of Prof. Lomborg, we cannot forget thousands who struggled to bring "environment" to the discussion table and the world agenda.
Finally what is the effect of "Skeptical Environmentalist" on me; I am now an "informed" environmentalist...hope I am right!!!
Throghout the "reading" of the book, I felt that some of my experiences as a Research Scientist (methods, selective use of data, discussions, conclusions etc.) are being confirmed again and again and Prof. Lomborg has done a great job bringing these out without being rude and crude. His thesis is simple: "Environental issues do exist; many times the (potential) effects of these issues get exaggerated. Our resources to address global issues are limited. We have to prioritize the spending of resources based on the short term and long term benefits to the world". For example, you decide if you would like to save a Polar bear by spending billions of dollars on Climate Change research or save 100s of polar bears by simply banning hunting of Polar bears. Or would you spend trillions of dollars on reducing GHG emissions to reduced global warming by a fraction of a degree in fifty years or spend a few million dollars in conducting research on solar cells to make them economically attractive so that they can eventually replace the carbon based energy solutions. Prof. Lomborg's analysis is "fantastic" to say the least.
I have been an "environmentalist" for more than twenty two years; I often thought of some of the claims of my colleagues as "dogmatic". Now I have someone who, through scientific analysis of data, proves that my thoughts were valid. I think Prof. Lomborg provides us a way of balancing our concern for real issues with those emotionally loaded rhetorics.
What are, then, the real issues ? I would refer you to Prof. Lomborg's "Copenhagen Consensus", identifying top priority issues that the world has to address (http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/Default.aspx?ID=788).
I am quite happy to see someone thinking differently, not joining the popular bandwagon; "thinking differently" is Environmental Management about. While praising the effort of Prof. Lomborg, we cannot forget thousands who struggled to bring "environment" to the discussion table and the world agenda.
Finally what is the effect of "Skeptical Environmentalist" on me; I am now an "informed" environmentalist...hope I am right!!!
