We shouldn't be too surprised about the continuing uncertainties in climate change science (Comment and "Fiddling while Earth Warms", 25 March). This is a consequence of the sheer complexity of the scientific and policy issues, the increasing involvement of disciplines relatively new to the field (such as ecology, chemistry, geography and increasingly the social sciences) all with their own ways of doing research, and the inevitable backlash from those whose current operations are challenged by emission controls.
Scientific uncertainty might well increase in the future precisely because of the new research interlinkages being forged in the emerging arena of "earth system modelling". Does this imply that policy actions should therefore be reduced?
The danger is to imagine that we need to reduce scientific uncertainty in order to reach political consensus and a commitment to taking precautionary policy (such as reducing emissions and designing adaptive responses). That approach to scientific uncertainty ...
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