Thus “high confidence” did not get translated into “they are sure”, while “medium confidence“ did get translated into “they are not sure“.

In “The Blank Slate”, Dr. Steven Pinker says our hunter-gatherer ancestors who were risk-averse and stayed within the “known ways” were more likely to pass their genetic traits down. The result is that we are not genetically hardwired to analyze and handle risk very well.

This is seen in the climate change debate. The media tries to portray the phenomenon as either 0% or 100% — — because that is what the audience wants to hear. However, this portrayal does not reflect the true situation. Thus our attempts at reasonable public policy seem to be futile.