ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the infinite disutility of risking climate change in which uncertainty does the work. One thing that is noteworthy about this argument is how little work the subject of that uncertainty actually does. In his work Weitzman is certainly at pains to show how his econometric argument is consistent with the dire projections of climate scientists, but those projections themselves play no role in the econometric argument itself. As such, if Weitzman's argument is sound, its soundness is insensitive to any level of CO2 above historic levels to the extent that the probability distribution for damages at that level has a fat right hand tail. If people are to worry about the extinction risk of greenhouse gases, then why not also worry about the risk of genetic manipulation, or nuclear energy, or particle accelerators, or the list would seem endless since it is surely impossible to rule out all risk of extinction.
