BOOK REVIEW:
By: Gunther Sotomayor
Tags: Poverty Alleviation, Bjorn Lomborg, Environmental Issues, Book Review

The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming

Book at Amazon

Author: Bjørn Lomborg

Book year: 2007

A Reminder that there is no perfect solution… just the best solution in context.

In Short: A cost/benefit analysis about the solutions proposed in the Kyoto Agreement which concludes that Kyoto proposals are way expensive with small to zero benefits and ineffective to resolve the central problem and at the same time deprive funds to real, proven solutions to address the consequences of CO2 emissions.

A very informative book even sometimes I found it repetitive and in terms of writing style something in between academic prose to impactful investigation report… to be honest, sometimes quite boring, but in general a good book. A lot of references: 1/4 of the book is dedicated to notes and references

The book focus on the Kyoto Protocol and their effects regarding the problems that it wants to address and provide solutions. The author uses the same process in every example: present the problem with a lot of numbers and references, describe how the Kyoto Protocol provides a solution, present a different solution that does not require applying Kyoto protocols, and make a comparison. All solutions provided by the author do not require the amount of capital that Kyoto requires, are based on proven and know technology that does not require a global engagement of any government and can be resolve by local authorities with enough capital and the benefits surpass in orders of magnitude whatever benefit Kyoto would reach.

The author just makes a very good case for a cost/benefit analysis of the Kyoto Agreement and Kyoto losses all the time.

After reading the book this is my take of the main argument of the book regarding the Kyoto Agreement and it is my own interpretation:

The conclusion is that the Kyoto Agreement is like me going to a doctor asking a solution for my cold and the doctor tells me: exercise more! Yes, of course, the exercise, in the long run, would increase my overall health and strength my immunology system making me less propensity to catch the flu… but I have the flu now and a pill and therapeutics are way cheaper and effective right now that the gym membership, personal trainer, dieting, nutritionist that I have to hire and pay for, for years and years to come to develop something naturally as effective as a simple flu shot!.

Same with Kyoto Agreement, yes reducing CO2 emissions are something we have to do for all the impact (allegedly) described by the environmental groups but reducing CO2 in a radical manner is not the best solution to resolve the immediate problems that the society has to deal right now; the level of coordination and the complexity of such an endeavor at a global scale with different countries in different stages of development and different agendas and with the exorbitant cost, makes the protocol unacceptable for the author.

The Author shows a profound knowledge of environmental issues and it is a firm belief that Global Warming must be addressed, but the way Kyoto addressed do not provide a lasting solution and deviate the attention to the real challenge that the world still has not addressed well enough: Poverty

With Regards

Gunther Sotomayor