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The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World
Author(s) -
Daniel Pauly
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
fish and fisheries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.747
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1467-2979
pISSN - 1467-2960
DOI - 10.1046/j.1467-2979.2002.00097.x
Subject(s) - skepticism , citation , fish <actinopterygii> , library science , state (computer science) , computer science , philosophy , fishery , epistemology , algorithm , biology
Few academic books about environmental issues have generated as much attention as Lomborg's "Skeptical Environmentalist". Lomborg is a statistics professor who describes himself as “an old leftwing Greenpeace member”. Provoked by a magazine article seeking to debunk environmentalist rhetoric, Lomborg with help from students devoted the fall of 1997 to studying the data on environmental problems. This study led to an abrupt change in Lomborg’s views. Despite his environmentalist background, Lomborg concluded that much of the environmentalist literature is misleading, exaggerated, and downright wrong. He also concluded that the world’s environment is getting better rather than worse, and writes (p. 351): “We are actually leaving the world a better place than when we got it...mankind’s lot has vastly improved in every significant measurable field ... [and] is likely to continue to do so.”