In Get Your Priorities Right, Kimberley Strassel gives a good overview of former-Greenpeace enthusiast Bjorn Lomborg’s efforts to move the Left back toward its rational roots:
In 2004, he invited eight of the world’s top economists — including four Nobel Laureates — to Copenhagen, where they were asked to evaluate the world’s problems, think of the costs and efficiencies attached to solving each, and then produce a prioritized list of those most deserving of money. The well-publicized results (and let it be said here that Mr. Lomborg is no slouch when it comes to promoting himself and his work) were stunning. While the economists were from varying political stripes, they largely agreed. The numbers were just so compelling: $1 spent preventing HIV/AIDS would result in about $40 of social benefits, so the economists put it at the top of the list (followed by malnutrition, free trade and malaria). In contrast, $1 spent to abate global warming would result in only about two cents to 25 cents worth of good; so that project dropped to the bottom.
This puts things in perspective:
“The U.N. tells us global warming will result in a sea-level change of one to two feet. It is not going to be the 30 feet Al Gore is scaring us with. Is this one to two feet going to be a problem? Sure,” he says. “But remember that this past century sea levels rose between one-third and a full foot. And if you ask old people today what the most important things were that happened in the 20th century, do you think they are going to say: ‘Two world wars, the internal combustion engine, the IT revolution … and sea levels rose’? It’s not to say it isn’t a problem. But we fix these problems.”
The real issue is that politician aren’t economists, and they don’t want to prioritize:
“Right now, politicians know that in public they have to say they support all things, and suggest there is an infinite amount of money to give to an infinite amount of good causes. Semiprivately, they know that if they have 10 good causes, the easiest thing is to give one-tenth of the funds to each — so there are no complaints. But privately they know there isn’t enough money for everything and that they probably should have given most of it to the one or two groups that would do the most good.”