addressing GW in a nutshell

1.) Is there "global warming"? Likely.

2.) If so, is a good chunk of it anthropogenic? Probably.

3.) Is it a problem-- as in net costs/benefits? Not at all sure.

4.) If net cost, will it be addressed *ably* with policy. Doubt it.

There you go: that's my position in a nutshell. If you're not willing to address all four questions, then you don't yet have a useful position on the topic. The options: Get with it, hold your tongue, or flaunt your ignorance.

Here's the tough thing: many of the people on whom we depend for help in drawing informed inferences in this arena...they purposefully (or out of ignorance!) only tell us about half of the coin. On top of this, they condone and placate their false prophets. And they use rhetoric, comparing those who question (or even disagree) to Holocaust deniers. The problem: if you compare me to Nazis, then you've lost the debate.

As an economist, I'm trained to look at the whole coin. And when I find persistent (and often passionate) half-coiners, the confident inference is to dismiss them cynically.

Is there any debate on *this*? Where is the call for science and logic-- in demanding full analysis rather than half measures? Apparently, it won't be the "scientists", the "elites", and the politicians leading this charge, so I guess it falls on the economists.