The Scare Dynamic

"With no countervailing force, we get the build-up of a scare dynamic which then dominates public policy, even (or especially) where the scientific foundation is hopelessly flawed.

In the fullness of time, the scare will dissipate – scares always do – leaving a trail of wreckage behind it. Looking back, we will view the claims of pending Armageddon with amused puzzlement, wondering how people could have been so stupid as to have accepted such crazy alarums.

By then, of course, we will all have moved on to yet another scare, and another, each of which will have seemed every bit as plausible and rational as did global warming at the time. But each time we will have forgotten how easily we were gulled by that which we now deride, and each time mankind emerges the poorer." [ And don't forget that China is set to pass the U.S. as the largest greenhouse producer this year or next. Or that the meat industry is currently the largest contributor to greenhouse gasses. ... Crickets chirping... -ed. ]