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Bjørn Lomborg

How to Spend $75 Billion to Make the World a Better Place Paperback – March 1, 2014

by Bjørn Lomborg (Author), Bjorn Lomborg (Editor)

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Paperback, March 1, 2014

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New improved edition with updated introduction by Bjorn Lomborg. The world faces myriad challenges - yet we are constrained by scarce resources. In the 21st Century, how do we deal with natural disasters, tackle global warming, achieve better nutrition, educate children... and address countless global issues? If you want to change the world, this inspiring and enlightening book is for you. Bjorn Lomborg presents the costs and benefi ts of the smartest solutions to twelve global problems. By prioritizing the top solutions, this helps us better spend $75 billion to do the most good. Featuring the cutting edge research of more than sixty eminent economists, including four Nobel Laureates, produced for the Copenhagen Consensus, this book will inform, enlighten and motivate actions to make our world a better place.

Print length

160 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Copenhagen Consensus Center
Publication date

March 1, 2014
ISBN-10

1940003032
ISBN-13

978-1940003030
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Editorial Reviews

Review

The Copenhagen Consensus brings together an impressive roster of minds, and while not everyone agrees with the composition and ordering of Lomborg's priorities lists -- climate change tends to rank lower than many stakeholders would like, for example -- as a point of departure for discussion, the exercise of priority-setting is a sound one. ---- --Tom Zeller Jr., The Huffington Post

What could world leaders have achieved if they hadn't spent the past 25 years investing so much money and summitry on global warming? In a brilliant book, How to Spend $75 Billion to Make the World a Better Place, Lomborg has documented how politicians could have been tackling more pressing problems facing the world's poorest people. Action on HIV/Aids, for example, the provision of micro nutrients to hungry children, the control of malaria, guarantees of clean water and the liberalisation of trade would all have been better uses of politicians' time and taxpayers' money. ---- --Tim Montgomerie, The Times

I have served on four Copenhagen Consensus committees of experts since 2004. All involved hard choices among attractive alternatives to meet crucial objectives for development and health. And the reason I keep serving? I learn so much. ---- Thomas C. Schelling, Nobel Laureate in Economics Copenhagen Consensus is an outstanding, visionary idea and deserves global coverage. ---- --The Economist

What could world leaders have achieved if they hadn't spent the past 25 years investing so much money and summitry on global warming? In a brilliant book, How to Spend $75 Billion to Make the World a Better Place, Lomborg has documented how politicians could have been tackling more pressing problems facing the world's poorest people. Action on HIV/Aids, for example, the provision of micro nutrients to hungry children, the control of malaria, guarantees of clean water and the liberalisation of trade would all have been better uses of politicians' time and taxpayers' money. ---- --Tim Montgomerie, The Times

I have served on four Copenhagen Consensus committees of experts since 2004. All involved hard choices among attractive alternatives to meet crucial objectives for development and health. And the reason I keep serving? I learn so much. ---- Thomas C. Schelling, Nobel Laureate in Economics Copenhagen Consensus is an outstanding, visionary idea and deserves global coverage. ---- --The Economist

Whatever we do about climate, we should recognize that the world has many problems. If you are malnourished and diseased, what the climate will be like at the end of the century is not a high priority. Given limited resources, we should not let ourselves be swept away by the apocalyptic fear generated by any one threat. In the second edition (2014) of his book How to Spend $75 Billion to Make the World a Better Place, Bjørn Lomborg reports the findings of a study sponsored by his Copenhagen Consensus Center 2012 project in which more than 50 economists evaluated 39 proposals on how best to solve such problems as armed conflicts, natural disasters, hunger, disease, education and climate change. Climate change barely rated a mention in the top 10, which included, in order, malnutrition interventions, malaria treatment, childhood immunization, deworming of schoolchildren, tuberculosis treatment, research and development to increase crop yields, early-warning systems for natural disasters, hepatitis B immunization, and low-cost drugs for acute heart attack. --Michael Shermer in Scientific American

I have served on four Copenhagen Consensus committees of experts since 2004. All involved hard choices among attractive alternatives to meet crucial objectives for development and health. And the reason I keep serving? I learn so much. ---- Thomas C. Schelling, Nobel Laureate in Economics Copenhagen Consensus is an outstanding, visionary idea and deserves global coverage. ---- --The Economist

About the Author

Bjorn Lomborg is an adjunct professor at Copenhagen Business School. He founded and directs the Copenhagen Consensus Center, which ranks the smartest solutions to the world s biggest problems using cost-benefit analysis. He wrote The Skeptical Environmentalist and Cool It, which was also featured in an eponymous documentary. TIME Magazine named him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and according to the Guardian (UK) he is one of the 50 people who could save the planet. Lomborg has repeatedly been named on of Foreign Policy s Top 100 Global Thinkers.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Copenhagen Consensus Center; Second edition (March 1, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1940003032
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1940003030
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.6 ounces

Best Sellers Rank: #1,410,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews:
191 ratings

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Bjørn Lomborg

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Dr. Bjorn Lomborg is an academic and the author of the best-selling "The Skeptical Environmentalist" and "Cool It". He challenges mainstream concerns about development and the environment and points out that we need to focus our limited resources and attention on the smartest solutions first. He is a visiting professor at Copenhagen Business School, and president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center which brings together top economists, including seven Nobel Laureates, to set data-driven priorities for the world.

Follow him on twitter: bjornlomborg

Lomborg is a frequent commentator in print and broadcast media, for outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, CNN, FOX, and the BBC. His monthly column is published in 19 languages, in 30+ newspapers with more than 30 million readers globally.

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Too Scientific for Me

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2019

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I bought this after listening to Jordan Peterson on YouTube make a reference to how much he liked the Author. Jordan Peterson and the Author obviously have a lot more brain power than I do. I found parts of it interesting, the ideas and calculations are a bit daunting at times. More importantly, I found them working on problems at such a high level, making predictions on dollars spent and payback into the future that while impressive, have nothing to do with the real world we live in. Their prioritization of the world's problems is interesting, the money they say we need has always been there but the execution is what is lacking. The crooks rip off the money set aside to help the poor in backward countries which keeps the people poor. Are there ideas actionable? In an ideal world.

14 people found this helpful

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Lookingforfreedom

None of the solutions got to the root of world poverty

Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2020

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The book was too narrow in focus, without very much depth in technical solutions to the worlds problems. For example there was no mention of thorium power for electricity, no mention of using satellite technology, and no mention of indoor farming. A big let down to read such a narrowly focused book.

3 people found this helpful

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Scott Fisher

Peterson Recommendation

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2021

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Bought it because of the Peterson recommendation - fantastic book, read it in a day - quick read filled with the findings of UN and scientist studies on the economic and fiscal outcomes of where we are and should be spending money. They interesting exercise.

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Junijuin Enero

Interesting. Has there any progress on this since this was written?

Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2019

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Jordan Peterson recommended this book, so I bought a copy, the most affordable I could find. The insights shared in this book are priceless. Though we still need to put a number value on top of every irreplaceable human life. Not bad for a book trying to think of ways to improve the human world.

2 people found this helpful

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Mark C. Phinney

Not an Easy Read, But Well Worth the Effort

Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2014

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Not an easy read, but well worth the effort. Part of the difficulty in reading are the detailed explanations of the methodologies used to analyze policy alternatives: dry and repetitive reading, but does provide transparency needed to defend the policy choices.

8 people found this helpful

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Nick

Good information

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2020

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This book cuts the political BS and gets right to the point of how we can make the world better. Refreshing to read.

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Harry

Great Book on How to Wisely Spend Development Dollars

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2014

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I've been in and around development for 44 years, including 5 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Latin America and 13 more working with NGOs in 60 developing countries. I look for forward to each Copenhagen Consensus report. Clear, concise and practical....things almost always missing from others in the development industry (and development is an industry), like USAID, World Bank, IMF, UN etc. Alleviating or even ending world poverty isn't rocket science and Lomborg and company show us how and where an affordable amount of money can be spent to get the best results.

14 people found this helpful

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sien

Very interesting ideas poorly presented.

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2014

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How to Spend $75 Billion to Make the World a Better Place (2013) by Bjorn Lomborg is a short summary of The Copenhagen Consensus project that got experts in various areas to work out the cost benefit ratios of various forms of aid and then got a panel of economists including multiple Nobel Prize winners to judge them. It's a great idea and remarkable because cost benefit analysis seems to have been little used when thinking about aid spending.

The book is not a good read. The solutions are presented, the conclusion described and then five Nobel Prize winning economists present their ideas. Then the cost benefit ratios for all the options are briefly described. The book is a collection of essays with the most important parts being the cost benefit ratios that are essentially just presented.

The best options for spending have been, in order, micronutrients for children, fighting malaria, immunisation, deworming, fighting TB and R & D spending on agriculture.

The idea behind the Copenhagen Consensus is a really good one and the basic idea, that of applying standard accounting and economics practices to evaluating aid is a really valuable contribution. Micronutrient spending seems to have benefited from people reading the conclusion.

The weaknesses of the approach are in the accuracy of the cost benefit analysis and trying to apply it to things like reducing corruption and increasing free trade. These things would increase wealth substantially but are very difficult to achieve in practice.

The book may be worth having as a reference but it's not nearly as interesting or as well put together as Lomborg's other books.

14 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Really interesting book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 14, 2019

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I think this book is a great read for anyone who is interested in getting to the truth in terms of the complexity of issues discussed. I feel like I've come a way with a better understanding of the complexity of these issues.

Alex W.

Great book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2019

Verified Purchase

Really interesting book. Clear and concise.

One person found this helpful

Maurice Bouillon

Eine rationale ökonomische Stimme in den emotionalen Wirrungen der Klimadebatte

Reviewed in Germany on June 24, 2019

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Gute Bücher laden uns dazu ein unserer Perspektive zu wechseln und lehren uns hierbei, dass es mehr als den einen "richtigen" Weg gibt und dass unser Weg weder der einzige, noch der Beste ist.
Gute Bücher verwandeln Emotionen in Rationalitäten und Intutionen in Werte.

6 people found this helpful

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Nokix

Nancy Stockeys Text in Gold einrahmen, Rest nur überfliegen

Reviewed in Germany on December 5, 2019

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Es handelt sich hier um eine Zusammenfassung verschiedener Expertenartikel, die leider in der Güte und wissenschaftlichen Fundiertheit stark variieren. Manche Texte wirken stark nahezu an den Fingern herbeigezogen oder scheinen die völlig unpassende Antworten auf die vom Autor gestellte Frage zu geben.
Ein echte Freude dagegen war da der Text von Nancy Stockey, die mit mathematischer Präzision und radikaler Ehrlichkeit und Sprache die beste Verteidigung ihres Rankings von Unternehmungen zur Weltverbesserung abgibt.

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Amazon Customer

Strategy trumps goals

Reviewed in Canada on September 7, 2019

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Great book and an important short summary for anyone interested in effective strategies for making a difference versus expensive or impossible goals that only further the careers or politicians or activists.

3 people found this helpful

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