I find Bjorn Lomborg to be one of the most persuasive voices on the planet. Money quote:
An African safari trip once confronted America’s new president with a question he could not answer: why the rich world prized elephants over African children. Today’s version of that question is: why will richer nations spend obscene amounts of money on climate change, achieving next to nothing in 100 years, when we could do so much good for mankind today for much less money?
Read the whole essay here.

