Larry Jones is driving the minivan across the Utah desert on Highway 163, with Sally in the passenger seat and the two kids dozing in the back. According to the map they are approaching the town of Pawoopsie. The radio is on, tuned to a Pawoopsie station that plays country music, but the reception isn’t very good. Suddenly the music cuts off and an announcer’s voice comes in: “static–one sixty-three–static–Pawoopsie–static–bridge collapsed–static–highway patrol says–static”, and then nothing but static.
Sally sits up. “Did he say that the highway bridge in Pawoopsie collapsed?”
Larry shrugs. “I don’t know.”
“It sounded like that’s what he was saying.”
“I don’t know; too much static.”
“Aren’t we getting close to Pawoopsie?”
“Yeah, should be a couple more miles.”
Larry, don’t you think you should slow down?”
“Why?”
“Well, if the bridge has collapsed . . .”
“Are you sure that the bridge has collapsed?”
“No, but . . .”
“Then why should I slow down?”
Larry flips to another station that says it’s only a natural variation in the bridge’s position. Another station says it fell down much worse 1,000 years ago and everything bloomed. A third station says reports of the bridge falling down are alarmist hysteria and the best thing to do is put the pedal to the metal. A fourth station says the bridge is down, but there’s no sense in slowing down and stopping until China fixes its bridges.
***
That's how our politicians approach the Climate Change problem, just like Larry Jones driving towards the bridge. Indeed, we are not 100% sure that human green house gases caused climate change will be catastrophic, we are only at about 97% confidence, so no point slowing down...
