Mashey on Lomborg, and virtual Mashey

Via Rabett, John Mashey's guest post deconstructing Lomborg as someone arguing with sophisticated political tactics, where the truth of the matter is secondary to the goal of stopping governmental regulation. Lomborg and his guest pals claim all sorts of other things are more beneficial worked on than fighting climate change, but since no one will do much to resolve those things, action on climate is effectively stopped, and their real goal achieved.

I especially liked this point:

Finally, as a thought question, consider another spending item that *might* have appeared [to be prioritized]:

- eradicate cigarette smoking
See about WHO report, 2008.

These days, smoking is growing in low-income countries, and WHO thinks a billion people will die of it in this century. After all, this is a business that depends on teenage addiction during brain-wiring time. That would seem an obvious win, right at the top of the list…

One could pay for a lot of those (good) things on the list.

but it’s not mentioned, is it? I wonder why :-)

I'd add fighting the introduction of junk food into middle income countries as another possibility whose prioritization wouldn't fit well with the glib ideology that Lomborg represents.

By the way, John Mashey can run but he can't hide any more. Here's a Google search for his stuff on blogs, and I'm adding his virtual blog to my list of climate blogs on the left of the page.