Thursday, March 12, 2009

Evidence-based climate care

In recommending "talk of energy independence, and the potential for new enterprise" rather than confrontation with climate denialists, George Marshall and some psychologists reinforce and improve a position established elsewhere for more than a decade (although who in Britain now remembers New Labour's environmental modernisation agenda?). This is timely and welcome. 

Looking ahead, how about more rhetoric and substance for 'evidence-based environmentalism', modeled in part on evidence-based medicine (which started to gel in the early '90s, and has been popularised more recently by things like Ben Goldacre's Bad Science column)?

In the U.S., the 'new' approach would fit nicely with healthcare reform itself, where (as Tara Parker-Pope and others note) a $2.5 trillion industry leaves some 46 million people out in the cold and favours expensive treatments over effective ones.

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