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Federal appellate judge Richard Posner’s decision-making is way too conservative (as in unfair) for my taste, but he’s no wingnut. Consider this entry in the Becker/Posner Blog: “The global-warming skeptics are beginning to sound like the people who for so many years, in the face of compelling evidence, denied that cigarette smoking had serious adverse effects on health.” (Still in denial is Chicago’s own “belief tank,” the Heartland Institute.)
“The second argument for incurring heavy expenditures today to reduce global warming is that there is a small risk of abrupt, catastrophic global warming at any time, and a small risk of a huge catastrophe can compute as a very large expected cost. [Those who can read as fast as Posner can write will recognize this argument from his 2004 book Catastrophe: Risk and Response.] …
