Monday, October 20, 2014

Quote of the Week - "I will not stop my child from kicking lions."

Male Lion at the National Zoo - Washington, DC (Credit: Jessie Cohen, NZP photographer) Click to enlarge.
Increasingly, arguments against climate mitigation are phrased as “I accept that humans are increasing CO2 levels and that this will cause some warming but climate is so complicated we cannot understand what the impacts of that warming will be.”

This argument is incorrect – uncertainty does not imply ignorance.  Indeed, whatever we don’t know mandates caution. No parent would argue “I accept that if my child kicks lions, this will irritate them, but a range of factors will dictate how the lions respond; therefore I will not stop my child from kicking lions.”

The deeper the uncertainty, the more greenhouse gas emissions should be perceived as a wild and poorly understood gamble.  By extension, the only unequivocal tool for minimizing climate change uncertainty is to decrease our greenhouse gas emissions.

-- Richard Pancost & Stephan Lewandowsky

Quote of the Week - "I will not stop my child from kicking lions."

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