'I got it wrong on climate change – it's far, far worse.'

[ProfessionalLeftist]

1. Every climate scientist I've talked to (and I work around them)

have told me that climate scientists tend to be very conservative when they do their calculations, predictions, and numerical extrapolations and -- that if they're wrong -- they're wrong in the sense that climate change is and will be much worse than they predict - not less severe - but rather more severe.

These people are scientists. They do NOT want to look like crackpots and chicken littles when they come to a conclusion or make predictions. Thus, they are extremely careful about it and extremely conservative in their stated conclusions. Not that they are never wrong - of course they sometimes are. But on climate change, they are not. They are almost all in agreement across the board and around the world (except those bought off by Exxon-Mobil, Koch Bros, et al. or otherwise silenced). Their research is careful, peer-reviewed and their conclusions almost unanimous.

They'd certainly like to understate the issue than overstate it. And in most cases, I think they have and that's why you now see them coming out and saying: "it's worse than we thought".