The Skeptical Environmentalist

The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World (TSE) (Danish: Verdens Sande Tilstand) is a controversial book by political scientist Bjørn Lomborg, which argues that claims made about global warming, overpopulation, declining energy resources, deforestation, species loss, water shortages, and a variety of other global environmental issues are exaggerations and unsupported by a proper analysis of the relevant data. It was first published in Danish in 1998, and the English edition was published as a peer-reviewed work in environmental economics by Cambridge University Press in 2001.

Praise

In spite of intense criticism in most of the scientific press, TSE received positive, sometimes enthusiastic, reviews from many mainstream media, including:

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• The Economist – "This is one of the most valuable books on public policy—not merely environmental policy - to have been written for the intelligent general reader in the past ten years.... The Skeptical Environmentalist is a triumph."
• New York Times – "The primary target of the book, a substantial work of analysis with almost 3,000 footnotes, are statements made by environmental organizations like the Worldwatch Institute, the World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace."
• Wall Street Journal – "...a superbly documented and readable book."
• Washington Post – "Bjørn Lomborg's good news about the environment is bad news for Green ideologues. His richly informative, lucid book is now the place from which environmental policy decisions must be argued. In fact, The Skeptical Environmentalist is the most significant work on the environment since the appearance of its polar opposite, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, in 1962. It's a magnificent achievement."
• Rolling Stone – "Lomborg pulls off the remarkable feat of welding the techno-optimism of the Internet age with a lefty's concern for the fate of the planet."

Given the timing of the English edition, which was published in August 2001, it has been suggested that the media coverage of TSE would have been considerably greater, had not the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US dominated the news media for several months.

Related Topics:
August - September 11, 2001 attacks

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Individual scientists, and some environmentalists whom the book is considered to be attacking, have also supported Lomborg or aspects of TSE. However, most of academic support has arrived from the political science field, while most climatologists and natural scientists have remained skeptical or hostile of Lomborg's findings.

Related Topics:
Political science - Climatologists - Natural scientists

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