I can tell that at any moment you are going to see the light. I can see it in your eyes. Just a tiny speck of doubt. A tiny little voice saying, "Maybe he's right. Maybe he's right."
The point is that neither of us know anything for sure. What we do know is that there is danger in being wrong, either way, but that being wrong one way is far more dangerous in that it is just possible that we could trigger some cataclysm that kills billions of people. IOW, we are literally playing with fire, with climate change, just as we are playing with fire with nuclear arsenals and proliferation.
Since there is risk, there is duty. It is irresponsible to not be considering the "what if" possibilities and making responsible, sustainability oriented conservative policy decisions.
We just don't know. So we should admit all possibilities and use "loss function" analysis to make policy decisions.
but I DO know.
it came to me in a dream.
Not fair. Not fair at all. You held your four aces until NOW? How can I argue against such authority? You've traumatized me. Now, whenever I debate with you, I will be totally stressed out just waiting for the "dream ax" to fall.
Perhaps I will recover from this by morning. Good night, my interesting new retired trucker acquaintance. (I'd say friend, but I don't want to presume anything.)