Science Quote by Bjorn Lomborg

Lomborg’s line is a small lesson in how to sound fair while smuggling in a hard-edged warning. He opens with a nod to reasonableness: business groups "may have good arguments". That concession disarms the reflexive culture-war reading where industry equals villain and environmentalists equal saints. Then he pivots to the real point: skepticism is not an insult, it’s hygiene. The phrase "naturally" matters. He’s telling you that distrust here isn’t ideological; it’s the baseline expectation in any system where incentives shape what gets said.

The subtext is about epistemology in public life: facts don’t arrive as pure data, they arrive packaged by institutions with something at stake. Lomborg isn’t claiming businesses always lie. He’s saying their claims need discounting the way you’d discount a used-car seller’s enthusiasm or a politician’s sudden love for fiscal restraint. The rhetorical move is subtle because it refuses the comfort of certainty; it leaves room for "good arguments" while insisting that arguments aren’t separable from the arguer.

Contextually, Lomborg has spent a career arguing that environmental policy should be prioritized by cost-benefit logic, not panic or moral theater. That position has made him a lightning rod: to critics, he’s too accommodating to market interests; to supporters, he’s the adult in a room of apocalyptic rhetoric. This quote threads that needle. It grants business a seat at the table, then insists we check who paid for the table.