Climate change activists have reacted hysterically to news that a think tank run by “sceptical environmentalist” Bjorn Lomborg is to be given state funding by Australia. (h/t Bishop Hill)
Earlier this month the Australian government announced the awarding of a $4 million grant to the University of Western Australia’s (UWA) business school for the establishment of the Australia Consensus Centre, in partnership with Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus Centre.
According to the UWA, the program will aim to “identify the key challenges facing Australia and the world”, and advise the government on potential policy reforms and other interventions that will deliver the most cost-effective solutions.”
Predictably, environmentalists have reacted with fury, taking to Twitter to brand Lomborg a ‘denier’ and question why the Abbott government was handing out the funds.
Some of the reactions include:
Speaking to the New Scientist in 2010, Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist said: “Global warming is real – it is man-made and it is an important problem. But it is not the end of the world.”
When asked whether this meant that he was no longer a ‘denier’, he responded: “No, I haven’t changed my mind, but the global warming debate is so polarised that there is space for only two possible viewpoints: either it’s the end of the world, or you think it is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated. Because I dared to be sceptical, a lot of people pushed me into the deniers’ camp.
“I have been sceptical all along, but about the solution. Our current solution – the Kyoto approach – doesn’t work.”
Despite his clearly stated views on climate change, Lomborg is still being castigated as a ‘denier’ today.
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