Pro-Resource Spokesman from Denmark

On August 2, the respected London-based journal, The Economist, published a very trenchant essay on the presumption that man's exploitation of natural resources is causing an inevitable degradation of the planet. The author, Bjorn Lomborg, begins promisingly with the observation that "ecology and economics should push in the same direction" and goes on to describe the "litany" that commonly passes for environmental analysis. "The litany," he says, consists of four big environmental fears, each of which he critiques effectively:

• Natural resources are running out.

• The population is ever growing, leaving less and less to eat.

• Species are becoming extinct in vast numbers: forests are disappearing and fish stocks are collapsing.

• The planet's air and water are becoming ever more polluted.

He then examines the reasons for "the litany's" persistence in global environmental dialogue. For the entire article, visit www.economist.com/library/focus/displayStory.cfm?story_id=718860.

Mr. Lomborg's book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, will be published in English by Cambridge University Press in September.

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