[FRIAM] Edge: The Need for Heretics

[Robert Holmes]

The Copenhagen Consensus is a Danish think-tank that gets economists and
politicians to address the question "in a world of limited resources, if we
cannot do everything at once what should we do first?". The top-4 ratings
from their 2006 meeting are:

   1. communicable diseases
   2. sanitation and water
   3. education
   4. malnutrition and hunger

Climate change slips from #10 (its position at the first CC meeting in 2004)
to #27. (Full list at: http://tinyurl.com/39udey)

What's your take on this people? Part of me wants to reject this as the
ravings of right-wing Kyoto-protocol-hating ideologues. But then the
rational part of me recognizes that you probably do get far more bang for
your buck (in social welfare terms) with these problems: they are
(relatively) well understood and interventions have a rapid effect on a huge
number of people. In contrast, climate control is poorly understood and it
takes decades to measure the effect. Where would you put your limited $$?

Robert
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