‘Global warming is not our most urgent priority’

Bjørn Lomborg, the controversial Danish economist, tells James Delingpole that it is better to spend our limited funds on saving lives than on saving the planet

Gosh, I do hope Bjørn Lomborg doesn’t think I was trying to pick him up. I’ve only just learned from his Wikipedia entry that he’s ‘openly gay’ which, with hindsight, probably made my dogged insistence that we conduct our interview in his cramped hotel bedroom look like a cheap come-on. Not to mention the way I sat there throughout, mesmerised and sometimes lost for words under the gaze of the handsome, trim 43-year-old blond’s intensely sincere Danish blue eyes which never leave yours for one second.

But it’s OK, Bjørn. You were safe all along, I promise. The reason for my awe is quite simply that I believe you are one of the heroes of our age. You’ve been called the antichrist, been vilified ad hominem in numerous scientific journals, even had custard pies thrown in your face (at Borders bookshop, Oxford, by an eco-activist), but still you’ve stuck to your guns and continued bravely to reiterate what for a time seemed almost unsayable.

Lomborg’s basic argument — as laid out in his bestsellers, The Skeptical Environmentalist and Cool It! — is that the world isn’t in nearly as bad a mess as the eco-doomsayers claim it is. And before we do anything too drastic to try to make things better, we ought first to ascertain what its most pressing problems are, rather than throw good money after hopeless causes.

Lomborg’s latest venture is a body he has founded called the Copenhagen Consensus. Funded mainly by the Danish government, this research panel comprises 50 leading economists, including five Nobel Laureates, and has spent two years applying cost benefit analysis methods to a list of global challenges — disease, pollution, conflict, terrorism, climate change, water and so on.

Lengthy one from The Spectator UK

Good Decision; Bad Reaction

This time the location is Britain, where a plan has been announced to encourage Britain’s teens into the Army, Navy or the Air Force. The idea comes at the suggestion of Labour MP Quentin Davies, who recently conducted a review into the role of the military in British society. As part of this review, Mr Davies found that many of Britain’s youth have no idea of military life.

This plan has the intention of strengthening ties between the military and the public, and has the backing of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Involved in the implementation of this plan is for “high school pupils to receive basic military training to help foster a greater affiliation with the defence forces“, which is quite an ambitious and worthwhile endeavour.

Head on beach face to be revealed… Mind out of the gutter. Although it ain’t bad…the surf, the salt air…nevermind.

A woman’s head and two hands were found on the beach.

Police hope to be able to issue an artist’s impression of a woman after a head and hands were found on a beach.

Efforts will also continue to try to establish a more exact age for the dead woman, whose head was found wrapped in a plastic bag on Arbroath beach.

BBC

South Australia Collecting Taxes From England

Australia clearly doesn’t tax us poor residents enough if they’ve started to tax English folks.