Getting Bang for Your Buck in Disasters
Copenhagen Consensus studies most efficient use of aid in world problems.
LONDON, May 24, 2008— -- Will David Letterman's "Top Ten" list ever feature "The Sexiest Global Crises?"
Not likely, but as individuals we do tend to rank worthy causes according to how compelling they are to our psyche. We have an emotional bond to certain causes.
So what is your favorite global crisis? What type of human misery, environmental threat, disaster, medical menace, or political extremism gets your attention, your morale outrage, and financial firepower?
Do you rank climate change over terrorism? Are you more upset about HIV, malaria and other health problems than you are over world food price hikes?
Danish statistician and political scientist Bjorn Lomborg says, in essence, that we are often stupid about how we give to charities and good causes, and how we urge our leaders to spend our tax money to help solve the world's problems.
"We have a natural tendency to focus on things (causes) that we see on TV, that we read a lot about, that have scary pictures that move our emotions," Lomborg told ABC News. "But we need to act on the cool question of where we actually do the most good, and that may lead us to some boring problems where we have an incredible opportunity to do more good. So we want to make sure we don't just focus on things that are fashionable, but things that are rational."
Every four years Lomborg runs what you might call the Olympics of Worthy Causes. There is no torch, other than what he obviously considers the light of reason.
It's called the Copenhagen Consensus, and it all kicks off in Denmark this week.
A panel of eight famous economists, including five Nobel laureates, will decide which global crises should be given top priority, based not necessarily on "worthiness" but upon the cold calculation of whether spending money on a given problem is efficient and productive, or merely a popular feel-good phenomenon.
"One example is our focus on international terrorism and global warming, both of which are real and substantial problems," Lomborg said. "But spending so much money on the military, or cutting carbon emissions right now may not be the best way to these problems in the long term. And we allow both of those problems to overshadow many other issues like malnutrition, affecting half the world (with loss of IQ points and potential to work), which is very cheap to do something about."
