Tuesday, May 15, 2012



Climate change: The Overton window

Via Paul Krugman, a scary image of the current debate on climate change:

051212krugman3-blog480

This disconnection of reporting from scientific reality matters. In particular, by understating the problem, it constrains the Overton window, the range of reasonable policy options available to counter it. Policies necessary to prevent a substantial cost look too extreme for a problem which is reported as only inflicting a slight one. Which means we dither, and the problem gets worse.

The question is whether the media start reporting on the scientific consensus before it is too late.