False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet

by Bjorn Lomborg

Overview

The New York Times-bestselling "skeptical environmentalist" argues that panic over climate change is causing more harm than good


Hurricanes batter our coasts. Wildfires rage across the American West. Glaciers collapse in the Artic. Politicians, activists, and the media espouse a common message: climate change is destroying the planet, and we must take drastic action immediately to stop it. Children panic about their future, and adults wonder if it is even ethical to bring new life into the world.


Enough, argues bestselling author Bjorn Lomborg. Climate change is real, but it's not the apocalyptic threat that we've been told it is. Projections of Earth's imminent demise are based on bad science and even worse economics. In panic, world leaders have committed to wildly expensive but largely ineffective policies that hamper growth and crowd out more pressing investments in human capital, from immunization to education.


False Alarm will convince you that everything you think about climate change is wrong — and points the way toward making the world a vastly better, if slightly warmer, place for us all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541647466
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	07/14/2020
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	15,628
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Bjorn Lomborg is the best-selling author of The Skeptical Environmentalist and Cool It. He is a visiting professor at Copenhagen Business School and at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. His work appears regularly in New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Economist, the Atlantic, and Forbes. His monthly column appears in around 40 papers in 19 languages, with more than 30 million readers. In 2011 and 2012, Lomborg was named Top 100 Global Thinker by Foreign Policy. In 2008 he was named "one of the 50 people who could save the planet" by the Guardian. He lives in Prague.

Table of Contents

Section 1 Climate of Fear

Introduction 3

1 Why Do We Get Climate Change So Wrong? 19

2 Measuring the Future 38

Section 2 The Truth About Climate Change

3 A Fuller Story on Climate Change 49

4 Extreme Weather or Extreme Exaggeration? 60

5 What Is Global Warming Going to Cost Us? 77

Section 3 How Not to Fix Climate Change

6 You Can't Fix Climate Change 89

7 Why the Green Revolution Isn't Here Yet 101

8 Why the Paris Agreement Is Failing 111

9 Pick a Path: Which Future Is Best? 124

10 How Climate Policy Hurts the Poor 135

Section 4 How to Fix Climate Change

11 Carbon Tax: The Market-Based Solution 151

12 Innovation: What Is Needed Most 167

13 Adaptation: Simple but Effective 183

14 Geoengineering: A Backup Plan 195

15 Prosperity: The Other Climate Policy We Need 202

Section 5 Tackling Climate Change and all the World's Other Challenges

16 Conclusion: How to Make the World a Better Place 211

Acknowledgments 223

Notes 225

Bibliography 249

Index 293

Editorial Reviews

05/25/2020

Danish statistician and political scientist Lomborg (Cool It) brands climate change warnings as alarmist, and argues that a massive reduction in fossil fuels would exacerbate global poverty, in this detailed contrarian account. Lomborg insists that climate change isn’t advancing as quickly as many people believe, and claims that technological innovations will allow humanity to adapt to rising sea levels and increased temperatures. He analyzes data from the UN and other climate organizations to argue that the links between global warming and natural disasters aren’t as strong as some authorities believe, points out the limitations and high costs of renewable energy sources like solar and wind power, and contends that the continued use of fossil fuels will eliminate “extreme poverty” by 2050. Instead of the standard renewable energy pursuits, Lomborg suggests that climate change can be effectively mitigated with a modest carbon tax that gradually increases over time, and with innovations in energy storage and geoengineering. While Lomborg is careful to back his cost-benefit analyses of climate policies with surveys and statistics, he overhypes the risks posed by the “extreme language” of environmentalists and fails to fully address the impact of climate change deniers on the debate. This is sure to spark controversy. (July)

Publishers Weekly

2020-04-30
Climate change is manageable, one analyst asserts.

Prague-based Danish political scientist Lomborg, president of the think tank Copenhagen Consensus Center and visiting fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institute, follows his previous critiques of climate change policy—e.g., Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming (2007)—with a hard-hitting analysis of failing strategies for addressing what he acknowledges is “a real problem.” He believes that “apocalyptic narratives,” echoing past panics about overpopulation, mass famine, and toxins, are hyped by the media and actually misrepresent evidence both of climate threats and the efficacy of solutions such as solar and wind technology, electric cars, and individuals’ efforts to limit energy use. Often citing U.N. climate and environmental studies, Lomborg argues that the prevalence of climate disasters such as flooding and wildfire is not increasing globally but rather the costs of damages that result from overbuilding are rising. The author’s least convincing argument focuses on humanity’s “remarkable ability for adaptation,” which he says does not factor into climate change predictions. If global temperature will rise 7.5 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century without any human intervention—a figure he does not dispute—people will respond by buying air conditioners and setting up cooling centers for those who cannot afford them. Wheat farmers will look to other crops or grain varieties or move their farms north. Lomborg is a strong critic of the patchwork Paris Climate Agreement, which, he writes, “will cost a fortune to carry out and do almost no good.” Other worldwide problems, including disease, hunger, and poverty, require urgent attention and could be mitigated by free trade, fighting early childhood malnutrition, and providing immunizations and access to contraception. Raising living standards globally, along with smart carbon taxes, geoengineering innovations, development of artificial meat, and increased fuel efficiency for planes can address climate change in the long run.

A serious, debatable assessment of a controversial global issue.

Kirkus Reviews

"Lomborg does not lack solutions. In False Alarm, he advocates a range of cost-benefit tested policies to address both climate change and global poverty.... Lomborg does a service in calling out the environmental alarmism and hysteria that obscure environmental debates rather than illuminate them."—National Review

"Meticulously researched, and well worth a read."—Forbes

“An excellent summary of the madness, hypocrisy, and cynicism of the climate-alarm establishment.... Lomborg has done an excellent job pointing out that climate fears are indeed a ‘false alarm,’ misdirecting time and resources away from real, and soluble, problems.”—New Criterion

"An important book. Mr. Lomborg is a long-standing environmentalist regarded as a heretic by hardliners in the movement because he is an optimist who says that humanity is not doomed."—Iain Martin, The Times (UK)

"The best way to deal with global warming is to increase global prosperity.... The choice we face, Lomborg writes, is between a human future driven by fear and one driven by ingenuity. On that, he is exactly right."—The Bulwark

"Lomborg's most basic premise remains that there are better ways to alleviate human misery than spending taxpayer subsidies than on panic-driven, political non-solutions to a changing climate. Few would argue with that goal."—American Thinker

"Lomborg brands climate change warnings as alarmist, and argues that a massive reduction in fossil fuels would exacerbate global poverty, in this detailed account.... Lomborg is careful to back his cost-benefit analyses of climate policies with surveys and statistics."—Publishers Weekly

"[Lomborg] follows his previous critiques of climate change policy...with a hard-hitting analysis of failing strategies for addressing what he acknowledges is 'a real problem.'...A serious, debatable assessment of a controversial global issue."—Kirkus

"Bjorn Lomborg's new book offers a data-driven, human-centered antidote to the oft-apocalyptic discussion characterizing the effect of human activity on the global climate. Careful, compelling, and above all sensible and pragmatic."—Jordan Peterson, author of 12 Rules for Life

"This is a very important and superbly argued book. Those who have been persuaded that climate change is not happening, and those who think catastrophe is imminent should both read it and know they can rely on Lomborg's meticulous analysis to put them right. The rest of us can be alarmed by his relentless revelation that the world is spending a fortune on making the plight of the poor and the state of the environment worse with foolish and expensive policies."—Matt Ridley, author of How Innovation Works

"False Alarm is a timely and important book. Based on the latest scientific evidence and rigorous economic analysis, it provides a welcome antidote to widespread, irrational panic about a coming climate apocalypse. Instead, it provides a set of smart, rational policies for addressing global warming — while not losing sight of the myriad other problems that beset our planet, including poverty and inequality. This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about our shared human future."—Justin Yifu Lin, former chief economist, the World Bank

"This is a fantastic book. In it, Bjorn Lomborg examines through the lens of statistics the apocalyptic projections of the future of climate change. He points out, rightly, that the doomsday scenarios are misguided and that policy decisions driven by panic have real costs, particularly for the poor. False Alarm is a must-read."—Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India

"Bjorn Lomborg is that rare thing: a clear-sighted realist about climate change. In False Alarm, he argues that it would be foolish to do nothing to prepare for a warmer planet, but it would be more foolish to pretend that we are doing things that will significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions when we are not. At the same time, getting serious about cutting CO2 emissions will have a cost. As Lomborg says, vastly more people die as a consequence of poverty and disease each year than die as a consequence of global warming. As in the past, we humans are capable of adapting to climate change in ways that can significantly mitigate its adverse effects, without choking off economic growth. To learn how, you must read False Alarm."—Niall Ferguson, the Hoover Institution, Stanford University

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