"Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors."

-Jonas Salk

Sunday, August 31, 2008

The Two Tailed Beast

Somebody with an interest in economics, one Tyler Cowen, a.k.a. "Marginal Revolution" gets this much right:
Make of climate models what you may, there is lots of evidence that a) biodiversity is being hammered, and b) climate change will bring desertification, drought, and possibly coastal flooding to many parts of the world, among other dilemmas. I don't have a lot of faith in the exact predictive powers of climate models, or for that matter economic models, but uncertainty about outcomes should make us worry more not less. Uncertainty usually has two tails, not just one.
Interesting comments, too. Comments off here; please comment on the referenced article.

With a tip o' the ol' fedora to John Fleck.