[FRIAM] Edge: The Need for Heretics

[Phil Henshaw]

daaa.... in a complex system don't we always do everything at once????
Playing the opposition game with things that can only work all together
is popular, of course.   I just don't think it works.
 

Phil Henshaw                       ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸
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-----Original Message-----
From: friam-bounces at redfish.com [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On
Behalf Of Robert Holmes
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2007 10:05 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Edge: The Need for Heretics


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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