Why real estate and insurance lobbies will have a huge influence on climate policy
Climate change is often seen as synonymous with global warming, a misperception deriving from the historical mislabeling of the phenomenon. Certainly, "warming" is part of it, but the real danger is the increasing variance or the greater-than-normal fluctuations in all aspects of climate: temperature; humidity; winds; rain; snow; hurricanes; seasons; etc. It is like noting stock price averages but ignoring volatility; or measuring average blood sugar levels but ignoring wild fluctuations. Why don't scientists aggressively emphasize this? Science is a cautious practice where data must pass a high level of scrutiny. Powerful vested interests have turned against scientists and politicized climate change, making the scientists even more timid. Who can extricate the climate debate from the clutches of dogmatism and partisanship? The answer is those who would be adversely affected by climate "volatility" and whose political strength can outweigh the forces that have fostered the climate change denialism: real estate and insurance.
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