Forget Auntie for a second... What about the Climate?
Going slightly off topic (the BBC) and at the risk on inducing some actual rational debate (on the Climate), lets pose some "what if" scenarios....
1/ Climate change is NOT happening: We continue to make pro-environmental changes to industry and society: What happens? Well some environmental engineers makes some money making filters and god only knows what else plus some fish in the river don't die. Conclusion, good for the economy and good news for everything else!
2/ Climate change is NOT happening: We don't continue to make pro-environmental changes to industry and society: What happens? Oops, a few environmental engineers go bust because nobody no-longer wants their filters or what ever product. Conclusion, bad for the economy but good news for everything else!
3/ Climate change IS happening: We don't continue to make pro-environmental changes to industry and society: What happens? Oops, guess we or our children or our grand-children are all going to die sucking on man made poisons. Conclusion, bad for the economy and everything else!
4/ Climate change IS happening: We continue to make pro-environmental changes to industry and society: What happens? Oops, but not so bad because we erred on the side of caution with the air we breath and water we drink, at least we're not going to all die. Conclusion, good for the economy but not so good for everything else!
In three of those scenarios, life goes on. Now I'm not into irrational risk taking so can we all agree that "3" is a really bad idea and "2" is not great for the economy? That leaves us with "1" and "4"... lets keep doing the science and debating the results until we find out which one is conclusively right but until then, lets err on the side of caution?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
