Experts Rank Global Warming as Minor Problem

Everyone is concerned about global warming, even Republicans, writes Ryan Sager. But when it comes to prioritizing it as a major problem, “ Republicans ranked global warming 19th out of the 19 issues; Democrats ranked it 13th out of 19.”

In this, you might be surprised, the American people agree with the experts. Danish economist Bjorn Lomberg got 50 politicians to review monographs prepared by economists on major world problems. Then he asked them to rate the problems in order of importance. Wait a minute, they said. These are all No.1!

That’s the point, Lomberg told them. This exercise is intended to force you to choose. The result? Global warming rated way down the list.

Lomberg’s initiative is called the Copenhagen Consensus. The prioritized list is here.

Here are the highlights of the prioritized list of global initiatives rated in order of importance by the participants in the Copenhagen Consensus:

Challenge Opportunity 1 Communicable Diseases Scaled-up basic health services 2 Sanitation and Water Community-managed water supply and sanitation 3 Education Physical Expansion   ... ... 27 Climate Change Kyoto Protocol

What about global warming? You can see for yourself: Climate change: Kyoto, down at 27 out of 40.

So it seems that the experts and the people agree about global warming. Where does that leave Al Gore and his “Inconvenient Truth?”