Tom Rand, Tom Casten and Bjorn Lomborg to engage in “energy and climate” debate at Toronto conference
This should be interesting. The International/Canadian District Energy Associations are holding their annual conference in Toronto on June 27 and have arranged a debate between “skeptical environmentalist” Bjorn Lomborg, waste-heat recycling evangelist Tom Casten, and Toronto’s own Tom Rand, author of Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit and a cleantech advisor at the MaRS Discovery District. The actual debate begins at 2:15.
Lomborg’s views have shifted over the years, but have always remained controversial. He believes climate change is real and man-made, but he has questioned the impact it will have and has held the position that we needn’t rush into dealing with it. Clean technology and clean energy is great, he says, so long as it doesn’t cost us more to deploy and take away from other priorities. Unfortunately, it always costs more at the beginning to deploy — it doesn’t suddenly appears on its own as a lower-cost option. More recently, he has identified climate change as a more serious problem, but he seems to favor adaption over immediate efforts to reduce the impact of global warming. It will be interesting to see how the two Toms go after Bjorn’s line of reasoning, which seems to appeal to humanity’s most selfish but also self-destructive instincts. Instead of being a denier, Lomborg can be seen more as a delayer.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
June 17th, 2011 at 12:19 pm
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June 17th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
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June 24th, 2011 at 1:14 pm
Debate is good. This one will be interesting to hear. Opinions will always vary, but eventually mother nature will define the issues with total clarity! The technology & practice of renewable energy solutions will then be in high gear. It is prudent to get a jump on it today – and that is what we are seeing – diligent corporations with a vision for the future are going green in a big way – and aside from being good global citizens, they will also see the long term financial benefits as a result of their decisions today. That being said – the June 27th interaction will be interesting to hear!