Sir, – Blaise Pascal thought it sensible to believe in the existence of God, as not to believe carried the risk of one being sent to hell. This is known as Pascal’s Wager. There are some who have used this form of decision-making to suggest that we should take steps to avoid the terrible consequences of global warming even if we are unsure as to whether global warming is inevitable. But we can do better than rely on such a wager: the evidence is all too clear and our former president, Mary Robinson, referred today to the report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a wake-up call.
Unfortunately there have been many such wake-up calls and governments have in the round ignored them. Perhaps Pascal’s Wager in its simplicity needs to be dusted down, after all, and used as means to force action. Yours, etc,
BILL GRIMSON,
Villiers Road,
Dublin 6