I am obsessed with David Mitchell. (The comedian, not the dishy author, but really both of them.) Okay, mostly I'm obsessed with Robert Webb because he's the cute one who takes his pants off sometimes, but the point is they are both spectacularly funny and I will basically listen to David Mitchell talk about anything. So it's particularly delightful when he's going yard on climate deniers.
Mitchell argues that even if you don't trust the scientific consensus on climate change — which is a pretty weird way to behave — even the chance of it is a good enough reason to act:
There doesn't need to be proof — there is, but there doesn't need to be proof it's happening for it to be worth doing something about. There needs to be proof it isn't happening for it to be not worth doing something about. You don't say "I know you smell smoke, and we're having difficulty breathing, and it's hot in here, and your theory is the roof is on fire, but until I have proof I'm not going to extinguish my cigar."
If a shop thinks it has inadvertantly sold a product which might in unusual circumstances lead to a .1 percent chance of killing a child, it immediately recalls it. And if you're a parent that bought this product, you take it back. You don't say "well, there's no actual proof this could kill a child, it hasn't done yet, and even if it could a .1 percent chance is one in 10,000, those are very long odds, and it's a lovely color, I'll keep it." That would not in fact be a ridiculous thing to say, but no one says it. And in this case we're talking about making the whole planet uninhabitable, and everyone who's qualified to judge says it is or it might be happening, so for God's sake until we find out for sure let's recall the product.
Okay, I want to quote the rest of it because really every line is gold and I like seeing it come out of David Mitchell's face, but you should probably just watch it.
