Art & Creativity Quote by Bjorn Lomborg

There is a sly defensiveness baked into Lomborg's complaint: the scientist as both truth-teller and unwilling publicist, trapped between precision and mass comprehension. The phrase "occupational hazard" reframes what could be a self-inflicted problem (writing or speaking in ways that invite misreadings) as an unavoidable workplace injury, like bad posture or lab accidents. It’s a shrewd move. It casts the speaker as conscientious and careful while quietly shifting responsibility onto the audience and the media ecosystem.

The line "this is the best information I have" performs scientific humility, but it also doubles as a shield. "Best" signals provisionality, yet it claims authority: you may disagree, but you are disagreeing with the most rigorous version available. Then comes the real tell: "not everyone is going to read the footnotes". Footnotes here are more than citations; they’re a moral alibi. They imply the real argument lives in the basement, and if you only toured the lobby, any confusion is your fault.

The subtext lands especially hard given Lomborg’s public role as a contrarian in climate and policy debates, where selective quoting and simplified takeaways are the oxygen of the discourse. He’s acknowledging a modern asymmetry: nuanced risk analysis becomes a slogan the moment it leaves the page. The quote isn’t just about misunderstandings; it’s about control. Scientists crave accuracy, but public-facing science is a contact sport, and Lomborg is warning that the crowd will judge the match by the highlights, not the full replay.