Acting with wisdom and generous safety factors

摘要

I refer to the letter by Alex McLachlan (Letters, June) titled "Learned society and politics don't go together". Mr McLachlan casually dismisses the countless hours put into the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change by eminent scientists and others as draft works-in-progress from "some scientists", and describes those pushing climate change concerns as acting out of self-interest. The whole thrust of his letter seems to be that we should only debate issues from a learned perspective rather than an emotive or political stance. Like many, including our previous government, Mr McLachlan seems to say "the jury is still out so let's keep doing business as usual" until...until what?