AFF's Doublethink

Interesting post by Conor Clarke on the morality of doing something to tackle climate change. I think the key question is this one:

5. There is a great deal of uncertainty about what will happen. To be sure: There is no (repeat, no) scientific uncertainty as to whether or not the climate is warming. It is. But the question is, By how much? And when? Will the temperature increase by two degrees Celsius over the next 100 years? Three degrees? Seven degrees? The differences matter.

We have literally no idea how much the Earth will warm or how much we can do to stop it. This is why I’ve always thought that massive governmental efforts to stop global warming are both silly and fundamentally dangerous: Destroying the American economy and making life worse for everyone in the developing world for what might produce no net benefit is a terrible, terrible idea. It isn’t enough to repeat the mantra “But we have to do something.” We don’t! We really, honestly, do not have to do something stupid in the name of doing something. It’s far more important to do something smart when we have a better handle on the eventual impact of global warming, and whether that impact outweighs the net benefits of a slightly warmer planet.