Science Quote by Bjorn Lomborg

Lomborg’s line reads like an inoculation against the two dominant genres of modern doom: apocalyptic environmentalism and feel-good techno-optimism. The rhetorical trick is the pose of plain speech - “as they basically are” - which doubles as a credibility play. He’s not promising salvation; he’s selling himself as the adult in the room, the person who won’t flinch from data even when it irritates a tribe.

The subtext is a tightrope: “things are getting better” is framed as an accidental conclusion (“it so happens”), not an ideological preference. That phrasing matters. It implies the numbers forced his hand, while also preemptively deflecting accusations of cheerleading for the status quo. Then he immediately pays the moral toll: “but there are still problems.” This is less a concession than a strategy to keep the audience from hearing optimism as complacency. It signals, I’m not denying climate risks, poverty, or inequality; I’m contesting the story we tell about them.

Contextually, Lomborg’s public role has long been to argue that many global indicators (health, extreme poverty, some pollution measures) have improved, and that policy should be guided by cost-benefit analysis rather than fear. The intent here is to shift the emotional setting of the debate from panic to triage: if progress is real, then the urgent question becomes which remaining problems deserve priority, and which interventions actually work. It’s a scientist’s voice filtered through media warfare: factual modesty as both method and armor.