Stefan Rahmstorf has a new post on Real Climate that takes a look at Bjorn "Shipping Center" Lomborg's publication record. Specifically, Rahmstorf investigates just how qualified the skeptical environmentalist is to offer advice on all things climate and economic development. No surprise: the answer is "not very."
Turns out that despite his robust writing for the public, Lomborg has written next to nothing in academia. He published one paper back in 1996 about game theory—the subject of his PhD thesis. Since then, Lomborg has done nothing to suggest he is a serious researcher. For comparison, Rahmstorf looked at a real economist, Gary Yohe, and found that "Lomborg's papers were cited once last year," while Yohe's were cited "608 times."
Looking at Lomborg's past claims about sea level rise, Rahmstorf again finds that Lomborg is no academic. His claims are repeatedly misleading. He cherry picks a small slice of data suggesting a two year pause in sea level rise, and he ignores the long-term trend showing continuous rise.
Not content to stop there, Rahmstorf points out that, "Lomborg has quite a history of misrepresenting what is written in the IPCC reports." For example, Lomborg cites the IPCC's low-emissions scenario to suggest that sea level rise won't be anything to worry about, despite the fact that such a scenario would require exactly the sort of emissions reductions efforts that he advocates against.
Finally, one last mark against Lomborg is that he believes Bangladesh could just build sea walls like the Dutch to avoid the impacts of sea level rise. It is immediately obvious—just looking at pictures of the Dutch coastline compared to that of Bangladesh—that Lomborg's suggestion is completely unrealistic. Bangladesh is a riverine country with marshy, low-lying deltas that make it difficult and even counter-productive to build sea walls. What's more, none of this even takes into account the vastly different economic situations of the two countries.
The piece concludes with a a solid rebuke of Lomborg's scientific standing, and one line in particular is worth quoting: "I would consider much of Lomborg's writing propaganda."
Which isn't surprising, since it's probably hard to do any real work from a shipping center.
-----
Top Climate and Clean Energy Stories:
No, Obama isn’t a climate hypocrite| The key to meaningful climate action is not to haphazardly reject oil projects in the vain hope that people elsewhere will decline to produce oil, too. It is to reduce demand for fossil fuels, either by mandating reductions in their use, which Obama has done...
Mongolia in for double whammy: drought now, "dzud" next. The drought has wiped out up to 80 per cent of its wheat crop and up next could be the worst winter in six years.
Global warming intensified the record floods in Texas and Oklahoma. A new study finds a human fingerprint in the wettest month on record in Texas and Oklahoma
Greens target four GOP senators in major ad buy. “Unfortunately, Senators Burr, Portman, Toomey, and Johnson have joined in by fighting to allow the big polluters to continue pumping unlimited amounts of carbon pollution into our air,” they said
Environmental groups defend EPA plan for cleaner power | cracking down on coal and gas – while ramping up renewables like wind and solar – is estimated to save more than $50 billion per year in health benefits, and lead to 90,000 fewer asthma attacks in children by 2030.
Will California redouble its push for clean energy? It all rides on this upcoming vote. WSPA may cite consumer costs or regulatory authorities, but in the end it's a petroleum trade group, so it doesn't agree that California should reduce petroleum use.