BJORN LOMBORG: SETTING PRIORITIES

The Wall Street Journal had an excellent article today by Kimberley Strassel on Bjorn Lomborg. Mr. Lomborg is the Danish political scientist who wrote "The Skeptical Environmentalist." Mr. Lomborg argues persuasively that policy makers need to prioritize in addressing world problems based on cost effectiveness. This would, of course, require policy makers to act rationally! I don't hold much hope out that this will happen any time soon, but Mr. Lomborg's argument makes alot of sense.

Interestingly, when economists (from all political stripes) were asked to prioritize issues based on cost effectiveness, global warming dropped to the bottom of the list! Based on Lomborg's argument, Al Gore is in fact acting quite irrationally. Yes, I know - it is hard to believe that anyone would suggest that the inventor of the Internet is irrational.