Bjorn Lomborg 101

Tom Bennion the non-flying lawyer wrote a good post a few weeks ago on Bjorn Lomborg writing in Newsweek.

Tom's comment was that Lomborg had claimed that London had cleaned up its 1950s air pollution with technology.

Tom pointed out that ten minutes of internet search would tell you that air quality regulations cleaned up London's smog.

If you have ever wondered who Bjorn Lomborg is and where he is coming from in terms of climate change, I have just read a very good analysis which I thoroughly recommend. It is:

A Critical Review of Bjorn Lomborg’s Cool It and of Media ‘Complicity’ in Climate Contrarianism. By Michael Svoboda, 12 May 2011.

As an engaging and charismatic communicator, Bjorn Lomborg has few peers addressing climate change. But an analysis of his Cool It documentary, now available on dvd, documents long-standing shortcomings reporters should consider so stories of personal courage and conviction don’t displace sound science journalism.

Michael Svoboda reaches this conclusion on Lomborg, a warning to journalists.

This record of persistent and consistent misrepresentation points to a challenge the media face in covering a strategic communicator, of reporting on someone who systematically spins a complex topic that is rife with uncertainty — in part by accusing everyone else of “alarmism.”