Nicholas Stern: 'I got it wrong on climate change – it's far, far worse'

[caseymoz]

5. Actually there's a good reason for that.

In the '70s Paul Ehrlich and the Club of Rome pushed incredibly pessimistic scenarios, and when they proved untrue within a decade, it brought all warnings of worldwide environmental catastrophe and resource depletion into question and suspicion for the next 30 years.

If scientists sound overly pessimistic, it's mostly because of overcompensation. They don't want to repeat that mistake. They know if they make it too pessimistic, their projections will just be rejected out of hand because of Ehrlich and the Club of Rome exaggerating their gloominess.

As the catastrophes begin to accumulate, I think you'll see less emphasis on the rosy scenarios.