Joe Rogan Experience #1896 - Bjorn Lomborg

Lomborg makes the case that global warming is man-made and real, but not the end of the world, and that fear-driven narratives push wasteful policies. He repeatedly stresses trade-offs: plastics, fracking, nuclear power, organic farming, and net-zero all carry both costs and benefits. Using charts on cold vs. heat deaths, hurricane landfalls, malaria, sea-level adaptation, and malnutrition, he argues the world is getting better but slightly slower because of climate. His prescription is innovation in green energy R&D plus spending smartly on neglected problems like tuberculosis, education, and poverty rather than ineffective carbon-cutting mandates. Joe Rogan pushes back hard on water pollution from fracking and the ethics of accepting environmental damage for economic gain.

• In 1900 average global life expectancy was 32 years; last year it was 74, and it rises about three months for every year you live.
  00:09:55
• A Lancet study found rising temperatures save about 166,000 lives a year because far more people die from cold than heat.
  00:32:23
• Lomborg claims roughly 170,000 Americans die from cold each year and 4.5 million worldwide, mostly older people in under-heated homes.
  00:33:28
• US fracking cut the country's CO2 emissions more than any other nation by replacing coal with gas, which emits half as much CO2 per unit of energy.
  01:05:09
• Going net zero would cost nearly six trillion dollars a year globally, about two-thirds of total global tax intake.
  01:36:26
• The US produces about 12 percent of global CO2; zeroing it out would lower end-of-century temperatures by only 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit.
  01:46:54
• Tuberculosis has killed about a billion people over 200 years and still kills 1.5 million yearly, yet could be largely solved for about three billion dollars a year.
  02:13:04
• Lomborg advocates teaching-at-the-right-level with tablets, which can deliver three years of schooling in one year for about twenty dollars per student.
  02:21:54

• Adding lead to gasoline made engines run smoother but cost entire urban populations an estimated three to five IQ points.
  00:11:30
• About three billion people cook and heat with dirty fuels, giving indoor air pollution equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.
  00:23:32
• A Danish study measuring roadside air pollution found its biggest spikes came not from traffic but from a neighbor lighting candles.
  00:24:35
• The world's deadliest hurricane hit Bangladesh in 1970, killing 300,000 to 500,000 people, largely due to poor preparation and communication.
  00:47:27
• Babcock Ranch, a solar-powered off-grid Florida community, came through Hurricane Ian with internet and electricity intact.
  00:48:29
• New nuclear plants in France, Finland, and the UK ran two to four times over budget, making them more expensive than solar or wind.
  00:55:48
• Boston's Big Dig started at 2.6 billion dollars, ended at 14.8 billion, and finished in 2007, decades behind schedule.
  00:56:20
• RuPaul's partner owns roughly 66,000 acres in Wyoming leased to oil companies, with 35-plus active wells found on just 10,000 acres.
  01:09:46
• White Oak Pastures regenerative farm claims a carbon footprint 111 percent lower than conventional beef, sequestering 919 tons of CO2 in soil.
  01:30:11
• US landfalling hurricanes from 1900 to 2022 show a slightly decreasing trend, with the apparent rise driven by starting counts in the low-1980s.
  02:00:24