Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

70 S politics and governance
Box 2.1. (continued)
that the benefi ts of procrastination and the costs of disaster fall
onto different generations without the possibility of some offsetting
benefi t by the accrual of more wealth. If economics is an
unsatisfactory tool, the law is little better. Indeed, Posner believes
that “the legal profession may even be increasing the probability
of catastrophe” (p. 199). Improvement in this situation, in his view,
will require “that a nontrivial number of lawyers” become scientifi
cally literate, an interesting challenge (p. 203). Posner further
proposes other remedies, such as the establishment of a science
court, a center for catastrophic-risk assessment, the use of fi scal
tools such as taxation and subsidies, increased regulation including
the establishment of an international EPA, increased scrutiny of
research projects in high-risk areas, and greater police powers to
detect and control growing risks of terrorism.
Posner’s recent concern about the rising potential for catastrophe
is welcome and signifi cant. But it calls for some explanation.
His voice and considerable infl uence have long been on the
other side of environment-related issues, encouraging his many
infl uential readers to regard the market and wealth creation as the
primary standard for the law and public policy. He is a member
of the University of Chicago group, including Milton Friedman
and Richard Epstein, who gave us the prevailing economic and
legal philosophy that prized individual rights and the free-market
ideology that have destroyed a great deal of our capacity for public
responses to public problems. Nonetheless, it will be important
for legal scholars to sort out issues of law and liability in
climate-change cases that resemble the tobacco cases. The human
and property consequences of the use of fossil fuels were known
well in advance of efforts to reduce or mitigate them. As with
the tobacco cases, scientists have been warning us at least since
the late 1970s in ever more insistent terms, and no one can ever
legitimately plead that they did not know the consequences of
their actions.