How to Fathom Climate Change’s Unfathomable Numbers
People in Climate World tend to speak in statistics. But big numbers don’t always resonate, and fall short when it comes to describing humanity.
Climate people — researchers, ESG administrators, philanthropic organizations — can forget, under the pressure of fact, just how alien statistics can feel to those of us new to Climate World. They come to the conference and put a “ 419.68” on the screen. Everyone sighs and nods. They speak in fractions or, alternately, trillions — of dollars or trees, depending on the context. These numbers are whole careers, tenure, grants proffered or not. But if you don’t live in Climate World, they don’t resonate in quite the same way. You have to learn to appreciate them.
Of course, most of the time what’s on display is worse than numbers; it’s probabilities. I’ve learned to imagine all the bell curves as waterslides — big ladder on the left, starting at the 5th percentile, the lower tail. You climb it to the median, and hang out a little and enjoy the view. Then you go down a steep, terrifying slide on the right, down to the 95th percentile, the upper tail.