Bjorn LomborgVarmennettu tili

We're losing a million species in next decades" We heard it 40 years ago: Newsweek warned us of "A Grim Year 2000" August 4, 1980pic.twitter.com/r9jIRyQc93

We're losing a million species in next decades" We heard it 40 years ago: Time Magazine 8/4/1980, Vol. 116, Issue 5pic.twitter.com/M7hHfmbRN9

We're losing a million species in next decades" We heard it 40 years ago: New York Times headlined the findings under "Dead as the proverbial dodo" (July 31, 1980)pic.twitter.com/tFrgZsAChD

We're losing a million species in next decades" We heard it 40 years ago: Associated Press: "Government Study Sees Gloomy Future for World" July 23, 1980pic.twitter.com/ApxMFFKV4E

We're losing a million species in next decades" We heard it 40 years ago: Financial Times "A planet heading for trouble" February 15, 1982pic.twitter.com/BRl41K0eIN

Notice, this does *not* mean that there is no problem with extinction. We have likely pushed up the species extinction rate 100-1000x. But this doesn't translate into 12.5% of species extinct in a couple of decades — rather about 0.7% in 5 decadespic.twitter.com/NsLvQ3RSKO

Tackling extinction is worthwhile, but has to compete with the many other challenges, we face Panic on some issues means neglecting others, often more important issues Here the UN survey of global priorities: education & health before forests http://data.myworld2015.org/ pic.twitter.com/ASRnDqF2N5

And reading back, it is interesting to see the same mechanisms working again: 17 environmental organizations said the Global 2000 report "painted perhaps too bright a picture." Because it is always worse than you think (from Time Magazine, 8/4/1980pic.twitter.com/sYbzHZQcRe