Climate science and the way we ought to think about danger

Those who warn that anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases may precipitate climate change have good cause. But there is both epistemic and strategic reason to be frank about uncertainties surrounding climate science. First, a conjectural assessment of danger is all that existing evidence permits and, secondly, sound scepticism may drive out nihilistic scepticism, that is, the notion that nothing ought to be done as long as we cannot be sure about the impact of emissions. Scientists associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tend to ignore reasonable doubt. This is apt to do their otherwise worthy cause disservice.