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person1965–

Bjorn Lomborg

Disciplines:
denmark
mathematics/statistics
ecology/environmentalism
ecology/climate

Summary

Danish environmental economist — founder of the Copenhagen Consensus Center — author of The Skeptical Environmentalist — who accepts climate change science but argues that current climate policies are economically inefficient and that other global priorities (malaria, poverty) have higher return on investment.

Core Contribution

Creates the cost-benefit framework for global priority-setting — Lomborg's Copenhagen Consensus projects bring Nobel-winning economists together to rank global interventions by cost-effectiveness, creating the most rigorous public comparative analysis of how to spend humanitarian resources.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Was formally charged with scientific dishonesty in Denmark in 2002 — the charges were eventually dropped — but the experience of having his work subjected to formal scientific misconduct proceedings for saying things the scientific establishment found politically inconvenient shaped his view of scientific institutions
  • Argues that wealthy countries are making climate decisions that impose enormous costs on the poorest people in the world — his most provocative position is not climate skepticism but the argument that the preferences of affluent Westerners are determining policies that disproportionately harm the developing world

Notable Works & Achievements

The Skeptical Environmentalist

Cool It

False Alarm

Best Things First

Historical Influences

Julian Simon Bjorn Lomborg's own statistical analysis

Intellectual Lineage

Frederiksberg, DenmarkUniversity of AarhusCopenhagen Consensus Center

Contemporaries & Peers

Al Gore William Nordhaus

Minds Influenced

Environmental policy debate

Intellectual Posterity

The Skeptical Environmentalist Copenhagen Consensus Lomborg as climate heretic

Discussing

Bjorn Lomborg

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