Lomborg Reviews Tom Friedman's Latest Book

I've read Friedman for several years, but it seems he has gone off the rails on climate change and remediation in his new book (which I have not read).

However, I've read Lomborg's book and I generally agree with his basic thesis highlighted below:

"Because Mr. Friedman single-mindedly focuses on climate as the problem and massive renewable energy subsidies as the solution, he misses the policies that will make this world much better. In a sense, his prediction of the news being "weather, other news and sports" is a scary dystopia that would result if we followed his book to the letter -- if we made climate subsume every other issue. Although he briefly mentions the need to tackle health care, crumbling infrastructure, immigration reform, Social Security and Medicare, his proposal to spend trillions on global warming means that trillions can't be spent on other of the world's ills.

Toward the end of "Hot, Flat, and Crowded," Mr. Friedman wonders why we can't just implement the sort of policies he prefers. "What is our problem? If the right things to do are so obvious to the people who know the most about the energy business, why can't we put them in place?" Maybe the reason is that most people recognize a bad deal when they see one."

You can find more about Lomborg's work here. He is also a prime mover of the Copenhagen Consensus Center which is involved in some fascinating work.

In Vermont our problem is that too many are also drinking the climate change Kool-Aid. Symington and others would run this state off the rails with their alternative energy proposals paid for by government subsidies to support all these wonderful 'green' jobs. They think we can change our energy sources at a pace that defies common sense.

They seldom talk about the price of the energy produced, whether it's paid in taxes, product prices, or cap and trade schemes. But bet on it, we will pay far, far more than we do now. Where is the discussion of the total economic impact?