Climate Change: we're (not) all going to die

 

Sunday 30 September 2012 13:53 BST
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A report released September 26th projected climate armageddon in the not too distant future. According to DARA, the report's authors, 100 million people could die by 2030 and global GDP take a $1.2 trillion hit. Writing in Foreign Policy, Bjorn Lomberg casts himself a sceptic. It's "a house of cards built on dubious analysis and erroneous claims."

Lomberg is no climate change denier; "Let's be clear. Global warming is real and man-made, and it needs an effective response". Media panic caused by the report fundamentally misreads its projections, which don't say 'climate change could kill 100 million' but that products of our "carbon intensive economy" (i.e. air pollution) might. Air pollution should be kept separate from the issue of global warming, says Lomberg.

He adds: "The study actually honestly points out that the huge economic costs it projects are complete contradictions of the peer-reviewed literature, which in general find that current global warming has net benefits or only minimal costs to society".

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