Monday, April 26, 2004
The Copenhagen Consensus
(Via Petra)I have been following Bjorn Lomborg since the time the Economist first wrote about him, which then inspired a furious counter-attack from Scientific American. For those who came in late, Lomborg attracted a LOT of attention by saying that most environmentalists were being overly alarmist and that his research seemed to suggest a less bleak future for the planet. His brainchild, the Copenhagen Consensus now has a pretty decent website up which discusses 10 major problems facing the planet today and proposes solutions, keeping in mind both the scarcity of resources and the cost-benefit equations to human beings. The idea being that these discussions will help policy makers prioritise their interventions. The major problems being discussed include communicable diseases, climate change, conflicts, migration, education, subsidies, trade barriers etc.
These problems were distilled from a list of 32 issues the experts (which include Jagdish Bhagwati) had drawn up. For my own part, I was glad to see the "digital divide" was discussed and then dumped. It's such a non-issue, in my mind, and I cannot understand how some agencies can afford to offer it more importance than health and education. Anyway, if you're interested in these issues and want to hear a centre-right perspective on this, it might be useful to sign up for the newsletter.
These problems were distilled from a list of 32 issues the experts (which include Jagdish Bhagwati) had drawn up. For my own part, I was glad to see the "digital divide" was discussed and then dumped. It's such a non-issue, in my mind, and I cannot understand how some agencies can afford to offer it more importance than health and education. Anyway, if you're interested in these issues and want to hear a centre-right perspective on this, it might be useful to sign up for the newsletter.
