*This is not a claim that climate change isn’t changing, or that it isn’t man made, or that the changes will not have a net negative impact. Rather, even a superficial cost/benefit analysis will quickly show that the benefit or acting towards many other values will have a much higher payoff than any attempt to influence climate change. For example, adding iodine to salt is very cheap, but can save many millions of lives with a high degree of certainty and in a short time frame.
I don’t mean to confirm or deny that global warming is an important issue, but I disagree with the reasoning. Yes, there are lots of things more important than global warming. That doesn’t mean that global warming isn’t an important issue. It means that global warming isn’t the most important issue. A more relevant question is, if you decreased funding to global warming, would the place the money ends up going be something more important or less important?
adding iodine to salt is very cheap, but can save many millions of lives with a high degree of certainty and in a short time frame.
How exactly does iodine save lives? In my reading, most of the benefits seemed to stem from reduced cretinism & goiters. Which massively impact the economy and quality of life, but I don’t see this as actual life & death.
And insecticide-treated mosquito nets in malaria-infested areas can save even more lives per dollar than adding iodine to salt. So, shouldn’t we spend money on anything else?
Bjørn Lomborg is with significant pobability a doofus who in Denmark were a known speaker for the governments opinion, which at the time was ‘fuck the environment’.
That global warming is an important issue.*
*This is not a claim that climate change isn’t changing, or that it isn’t man made, or that the changes will not have a net negative impact. Rather, even a superficial cost/benefit analysis will quickly show that the benefit or acting towards many other values will have a much higher payoff than any attempt to influence climate change. For example, adding iodine to salt is very cheap, but can save many millions of lives with a high degree of certainty and in a short time frame.
Bjorn Lomborg did some research on this: http://www.ted.com/talks/bjorn_lomborg_sets_global_priorities.html
I don’t mean to confirm or deny that global warming is an important issue, but I disagree with the reasoning. Yes, there are lots of things more important than global warming. That doesn’t mean that global warming isn’t an important issue. It means that global warming isn’t the most important issue. A more relevant question is, if you decreased funding to global warming, would the place the money ends up going be something more important or less important?
How exactly does iodine save lives? In my reading, most of the benefits seemed to stem from reduced cretinism & goiters. Which massively impact the economy and quality of life, but I don’t see this as actual life & death.
And insecticide-treated mosquito nets in malaria-infested areas can save even more lives per dollar than adding iodine to salt. So, shouldn’t we spend money on anything else?
Bjørn Lomborg is with significant pobability a doofus who in Denmark were a known speaker for the governments opinion, which at the time was ‘fuck the environment’.