Synopses & Reviews
Edited by Bj rn Lomborg, this abridged version of the highly acclaimed Global Crises, Global Solutions provides a serious yet accessible springboard for debate and discussion on the world's most serious problems, and what we can do to solve them. In a world fraught with problems and challenges, we need to gauge how to achieve the greatest good with our money. This unique book provides a rich set of dialogs examining ten of the most serious challenges facing the world today: climate change, the spread of communicable diseases, conflicts and arms proliferation, access to education, financial instability, governance and corruption, malnutrition and hunger, migration, sanitation and access to clean water, and subsidies and trade barriers. Each problem is introduced by a world-renowned expert who defines the scale of the issue and examines a range of policy options.
Review
This is a stimulating intellectual game with important real-world consequences. Lomborg asks all of us to stop talking grandly and vaguely about solving global problems and instead to rank them - based not only on the potential harm they can cause but also on our ability to turn things around. To govern is to choose and this pithy book forces us to choose.
Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek columnist and author of The Future of FreedomThe world's staggering problems won't be solved by singing pop songs, denouncing villains, or adopting the proper moral tone, but by figuring out which policies have the best chance of doing the most good. If the world is going to become a better place, it will be because of the kinds of thinking on display in this courageous and fascinating book.
Steven Pinker, Professor, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Blank SlateThis book helps you make up your own mind, prioritize, and make your own choice. Just in time.
Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide, Saatchi &Saatchi, and author of Lovemarks: The Future Beyond BrandsBjørn Lomborg and his economist colleagues have produced a fascinating and unexpected consensus, which can start a debate about global priorities: Should we prioritize a costly and uncertain attempt to reduce effects of global warming in a hundred years time while millions are dying for lack of mosquito nets or condoms?
Matt Ridley, author of Nature via Nurture"This small volume reflects an admirable undertaking, gracefully explained for those interested in guarding the future" -Publishers Weekly"Lomborg's Copenhagen Consensus Center has posed a challenging question: If we had an additional $50 billion to spend on mitigating global problems, how should we spend it? To suggest answers, the center convened a panel of eight distinguished economists to evaluate proposals by over two dozen specialists on problems ranging from AIDS and malnutrition to water shortage, civil war, climate change, and migration, among others. Their collective recommendation: focus on AIDS prevention, the provision of micronutrients to poor children, trade liberalization, and the control of malaria. Their choices were determined by the expected payoff, largely but not wholly in economic terms, that each of these programs could generate relative to its cost. Some issues, such as civil war, could not be evaluated in general terms and so were not ranked. The motivating principle of the exercise was that resources are limited, political leaders must make choices, and those choices should be governed by where the most good can be done for humanity -- especially for those who are so poor that they cannot look beyond where their next meal is coming from." -Foreign Affairs
Synopsis
In a world fraught with problems and challenges, we need to gauge how to acheive the greatest good with our money. This concise volume provides a rich set of dialogs examining ten of the most serious challenges facing the world today: climate change, the spread of communicable diseases, conflicts and arms proliferation, access to education, financial instability, governance and corruption, malnutrition and hunger, migration, sanitation and access to clean water, and subsidies and trade barriers. Each issue is introduced by a world renowned expert who defines the scale of the problem and examines a range of policy options. Shorter pieces offer alternative positions. Three Noble Laureates are included.
About the Author
Bjørn Lomborg is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at the Copenhagen Business School and the director of the Danish Environmental Assessment Institute. He is also the author of the controversial bestseller, The Skeptical Environmentalist (Cambridge, 2001).
Table of Contents
Introduction: what should we do first? Bjorn Lomborg; 1. Meeting the challenge of global warming William R. Cline; Opponents' views Robert Mendelsohn and Alan S. Manne; 2. Communicable diseases Anne Mills and Sam Shillcutt; Opponents' views David B. Evans and Jacques van der Gaag; 3. The challenge of reducing the global incidence of civil war Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler; Opponents' views Michael D. Intriligator and Tony Addison; 4. Towards a new consensus for addressing the global challenge of the lack of education Lant Pritchett; Opponents' views T. Paul Schultz and Ludger Wößmann; 5. The challenge of poor governance and corruption Susan Rose-Ackerman; Opponent's views Jens Christopher Andvig and Jean Cartier-Bresson; 6. Hunger and malnutrition Jere R. Behrman, Harold Alderman and John Hoddinott; Opponent's views Peter Svedberg and Simon Appleton; 7. Population and migration Philip Martin; Opponent's views Mark Rosenzweig and Roger Böhning; 8. The water challenge Frank Rijsberman; Opponent's views John J. Boland and Henry Vaux, Jr.; 9. Subsidies and trade barriers Kym Anderson; Opponent's views Jan Pronk and Arvind Panagariya.