As promised, I attended Danish author Bjorn Lomborg's Houston public appearance at Rice University today (Jan 21, 2004). Lomborg, author of the controversial environmental tract, The Skeptical Environmentalist, talked for about 90 minutes before taking a five minute break. Then a 30 minute question and answer session followed. Professor Lomborg speaks perfect English.
About 200 or so people turned out for Lomborg's appearance. The crowd was well behaved and even in the Q and A session, the questions were interesting, not very polemical. I was seriously wondering if any local hard edged environmental activists were going to show up and shout Mr. Lomborg down or throw pies in his face, as has happened to him in some past public appearances.
Lomborg mostly followed the arc of his book. I discovered this as I opened the book and was able to spot graphs in TSE which he also used in his presentation.
The general message of Lomborg's book is that in many ways, our lives are getting better, not worse. This is contrary to most of the news that we hear. Moreover, he says that we have problems, but he tries to outline what those problems really are and that we need to prioritize them. Sometime in the future, I plan on finishing reading Lomborg's book and publishing a full review on my site.
One person asked Lomborg why was it that he received such vitriol over the publication of his book. Lomborg replied that it was probably because of one of two causes: 1) Some people must have thought that this guy is just way too stupid and irresponsible for publishing such a book, or 2) The book gives a different message that has gotten out about the state of the World today which threatens some vested interests. Since much of the criticism that was thrown at him has more or less rolled off, Lomborg thinks that reason number 2 is more likely.
I did take some photos, but I took them with a throw away point and shoot camera whose roll of film I might not develop for some time. I forgot my regular APS (I don't own a digital camera), so it may be a while before I post some photos. I did get him to sign my copy of TSE.
Posted by The Mighty Wizard at January 21, 2004 11:56 PM