Danish climate change denialist extraordinaire Bjorn Lomborg has apparently repented.
(I)n a new book to be published next month, Lomborg will call for tens of billions of dollars a year to be invested in tackling climate change. "Investing $100bn annually would mean that we could essentially resolve the climate change problem by the end of this century," the book concludes.
Examining eight methods to reduce or stop global warming, Lomborg and his fellow economists recommend pouring money into researching and developing clean energy sources such as wind, wave, solar and nuclear power, and more work on climate engineering ideas such as "cloud whitening" to reflect the sun's heat back into the outer atmosphere.
In a Guardian interview, he said he would finance investment through a tax on carbon emissions that would also raise $50bn to mitigate the effect of climate change, for example by building better sea defences, and $100bn for global healthcare.
Now, in part as pointed out by a friend (thanks, Leo) I do note Lomborg is selling a new book. And, the Guardian interview happened to be timely.
And, having reread the Guardian story, let me say that I'm leery of his emphasis on climate engineering. Through importation of species, Homo sapiens has done a horrendous job of biome engineering in the past. Any native of the U.S. Southwest knows about salt cedars/tamarisks. When I read ideas about deliberate "sooting" of the upper atmosphere (which Lomberg doesn't specifically name, but is a highly-discussed climate engineering idea, I cringe.)
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