Debating the Climate Change Proposals In 'Cool It'
New documentary aims to be counterpoint to An Inconvenient Truth Last week, Cool It a documentary billed as a counterweight to An Inconvenient Truth debuted in a limited number of theaters. The brain behind the project is Bjorn Lomborg, author of 2001's The Skeptical Environmentalist , a book that downplays dire predictions about global warming. While Lomborg is careful to note that the global warming threat is something to be taken seriously, he argues that governments are combating it in a way that is costly and extremely inefficient. In Cool It, he gives several examples (more investment in alternative energies, geoengineering, third world health and education) of what he believes are better investments in the future. Carbon credits and cap-and-trade legislation, he argues, are vulnerable to corruption and will only have a negligible effect on stopping rising temperatures. Needless to say, Lomborg's sentiment has been championed by conservatives and derided as dangerous by some scientists who believe that his argument only emboldens climate change skeptics. Here's what critics are saying about the film's arguments, and how Lomborg is actively responding to these charges.