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Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
@BjornLomborg
Feb 23, 2023 • 9 tweets • 7 min read • Read on X
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One of 12 best solutions for world's poorest:

Agricultural R&D

$5.5bn/yr ➡️

133m fewer hungry and $184bn/yr

Pls retweet to support

@USAID @giz_gmbh @jica_direct_en

@elonmusk @BillGates @JeffBezos @WarrenBuffett @TheMukeshAmbani @Steven_Ballmer @MikeBloomberg @mackenziescott
Sustained agricultural R&D for poorer world means

133m fewer hungry

+ enormous benefits for farmers (higher prod) and consumers (lower price)

Summary of this amazing solution in Philippine Daily Inquirer (2.7m readers), one of 35+ papers across world

opinion.inquirer.net/161230/time-fo…
Agricultural R&D underfunded in poor countries: e.g. cassava, sorghum, yams

Higher-yielding seeds deliver benefits even when other problems (little irrigation and mechanization or bad market access)

Here investment for CGIAR, the organization that did original green revolution
A hundred years ago, two-thirds of humanity was starving

But still today, 10% malnourished

We can do much better: invest in agricultural R&D to increase yields

New research: 133 million fewer hungry + each dollar delivers $33 of social benefits

copenhagenconsensus.com/publication/ha…
Hunger still affects 769 million people, costing $1 trillion a year

We need a second green revolution:

R&D to increase yields, making food cheaper and more plentiful

New research: A dollar spent here delivers an astounding $33 of social benefits

copenhagenconsensus.com/publication/ha…
Background: The world has promised everything to everyone with UN's Sustainable Development Goals #SDGs

But we're not delivering

We'll be half a century late

How to fix?

If we can't do everything, let's do the smartest first
The world has 169 priorities, from peace, climate change, hunger, disease and education to more recycling

169 priorities is like having none

And we're failing

We've identified the world's 12 most effective policies

Here writing with Debroy, PM Modi's economic advisor
economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/et-com…

In total, I'm writing about 12 of the world's most effective solutions over the next three months in more than 35 papers around the world
Here is my introduction to the most effective policies — the ones that will deliver vast positive impact for the world at a very modest cost

This is from Indonesia, The Jakarta Times
thejakartapost.com/opinion/2023/0…

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More from @BjornLomborg

Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Oct 31
Spanish floods are tragic — as they are everywhere

But remember flood deaths down dramatically

Globally, floods now kill 5,400/year, down from 400,000/year in 1930s

Deaths from European floods down 7-fold to less than 100 per year today

nature.com/articles/s4146…Image
Despite breathless climate reporting,

not only are European floods causing fewer deaths (tweet above) but

Losses from floods in Europe are declining, not increasing

nature.com/articles/s4146…Image
Death from flooding declining (2nd row)

not only for rich countries but for poor countries

Deaths declining for almost all extreme weather for rich and poor

for flood, flash flood, coastal flood, cold and wind

and for all extreme weather

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…Image
Read 5 tweets
Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Sep 15
New study: Climate change saves 282,000 babies

Higher temperatures mean more heat, and more babies dying from heat

but it also means less cold, and many more babies not dying from cold

In total, higher temps saved 282,251 babies in 29 poorer countries from 2000-19

Did you read that anywhere?

nature.com/articles/s4146…Image
As we have come to expect from studies of heat and cold, they use unequal scales, which makes heat and cold look about the same

— they're not, as you can see on the right


nature.com/articles/s4146…

Image
The study is very explicit in pointing out that the change in extra heat deaths and fewer cold deaths is caused by climate change

nature.com/articles/s4146…
Image
Read 6 tweets
Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Sep 11
EU climate policy has enormous costs

Industry electricity prices have increased 70% in real terms since 2000

EU industries now pay 2.7x the electricity price in the US (and 1.9x in China)

EU households now pay 2x US electricity price (and 3.3x China)

iea.org/data-and-stati…Image
EU climate policy causes high electricity costs

Consequently, EU can afford much less electricity per person

In this century, the EU has managed to get access to almost as much electricity per person as the US got in 1968


iea.org/data-and-stati…
data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.P…Image
EU climate policy has enormous costs

Electricity prices for industry have increased 78% in real terms since 1978

EU industries now pay 2.5x the electricity price in the US (and 1.9x in China)

EU households pay 2x US electricity price (and 3.3x China)

iea.org/data-and-stati…Image
Read 5 tweets
Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Aug 30
Outrageously misleading climate scare from the UN

Today, 85% more old people die from heat

What they don't tell you:

There are now 86% more old people



un.org/sg/en/content/…
thelancet.com/journals/lance…
population.un.org/dataportal/
I write about this and many other heat scares from the UN in today's WSJ

wsj.com/opinion/united…
Here is UNICEF misinforming on heat
Image
Read 5 tweets
Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Aug 3
Fake news doesn't just come from foreign enemies

Friday, WHO claimed that 175,000 Europeans died from extreme heat

I pointed out that was untrue, almost 4x exaggerated

Saturday morning, WHO admitted this in the smallest possible way — they simply changed their website (and address) and had some online publications delete "extreme"

But, of course, by then the story had already made its intended impact across the world

WHO believes "Climate change is the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century" — which is just laughable and one of the reasons it was caught off-guard by Covid

This belief colors the 'findings' of WHO. In their Friday statement, the WHO Europe director explicitly worries about the "climate crisis" and expressed his support for climate action costing $1,000s of trillions (1.5oC target), so he obviously would like a dramatic and large number to make it around the world

Summary: WHO told us extreme heat kills 175K+, a number they've now admitted is almost 4x exaggerated. And they don't tell you that cold deaths at 657K are almost 4x bigger than all heat deaths. This is not informing you well

Journalists have to realize that when e.g. WHO says something, it also needs to be fact-checked

Friday claim:

Saturday update:

My tweet to ask for correction (which the director hasn't replied to):

The actual problem put in context:

WHO climate biggest challenge: web.archive.org/web/2024080206…
who.int/europe/news/it…


web.archive.org/web/2015100811…Image
WHO wrongly claimed that 175,000 Europeans die from extreme heat every year

This scary but wrong story got all the headlines

When called out, WHO acknowledged it by simply changing their website (and some online publications)

— but by then, all the scary stories had already had their impact

Friday claim:
Their update:

My tweet to ask for correction (which the director hasn't replied to):
The actual problem put in context: web.archive.org/web/2024080206…
who.int/europe/news/it…

Image
This is what WHO should tell you (because it is true):

Moderate cold is the biggest killer in Europe, followed by moderate heat, extreme cold, and only lastly by the smallest killer, extreme heat

But that doesn't fit the narrative

Image
Read 5 tweets
Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Jul 17
Another environmental scare debunked:

Acid rain killing all forests was the main environmental scare in the 1980s

A new half-century study shows acid rain doesn't kill trees

— actually, trees grow more with acid rain!

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…Image
Acid rain scare in the 1980s delivered full-on panic

No more so than in Germany, where papers claimed "the forest is dying," called it an "ecological Hiroshima" and claimed ‘‘the dying of the forests will have a greater impact on our country than World War II’’

All falseImage
The 1980s Acid Rain scare we know now was mostly false

New study: acid rain actually makes trees grow faster

Yet, a majority of Germans in 1985 believed "all forests will be dead by 2000" because of acid rain

We were misled


bibliothek.wzb.eu/pdf/1986/iiug-…
sauerlaender-verlag.com/CMS/uploads/me…Image
Read 7 tweets

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