In a recent Op-Ed piece in The New York Times, Thomas Friedman reminded us of the 1% doctrine, derived from comments Dick Cheney made back in ‘01:

“If there’s a 1% chance that Pakistani scientists are helping al-Qaeda build or develop a nuclear weapon, we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our response. It’s not about our analysis … It’s about our response.”

Following this doctrine, we NEED to aggressively and proactively respond to the catastrophic threat of global warming, no matter how improbable people like to pretend it is. By this logic I would expect Cheney to be arriving in Copenhagen any day now to caution the world that “either you are with us or against us” on the war on climate change.

I don’t actually expect this to happen, but I’m just hoping that since the deniers refuse to listen to science, maybe they’d listen to the argument of one of their own. It’s actually a terrible argument, shunning thoughtful analysis in favor of blind fear driven action. Thankfully the call to action to prevent global warming doesn’t rely on a “1% doctrine.” It is more of a “90% doctrine,” based on 40 years of scientific analysis.

Image Source: World Economic Forum