"Maybe sceptics are right but we can't afford not to act" | The Australian

In his report, Ross Garnaut suggests further research into scepticism but gives the planet the benefit of the doubt

THE review accepts the views of mainstream science on a balance of probabilities. That formulation allows the possibility that the views on climate change of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the learned academies in all of the main countries of scientific achievement are wrong. There is a chance they are wrong. Just a chance. But to heed instead the views of the minority of genuine sceptics in the relevant scientific communities would be to hide from reality. It would be imprudent beyond the normal limits of human irrationality. It is prudent to give the major weight to the mainstream science.

This is fully compatible with investing more in improvement of knowledge to narrow the dispersion of the probability distributions. The improvement of knowledge, the narrowing of uncertainty, the sharpening of predictions: all of these can and should proceed alongside the commencement of international collective action in pursuit of strong mitigation. The mitigation process can be cut short, with due notice to those who have committed their capital to a new economy of low emissions, if at any time the international community comes to the view that new scientific knowledge establishes that the concerns of 2008 were erroneous.