re: #38 elizajane

Pretty soon, for a young scientist to study climate change will be about as unattractive and dangerous as it is for a young medical student to go into late-term abortion surgery.

I mean, as soon as a graduate student figures out that a) climate change is real and b) he/she will be pilloried and persecuted for doing any work that says this (YouCut, anyone?), he/she will have to make a decision: courageous principle, or go into pharmaceutical chemistry, make more money, and lead a quiet life.

Not quite accurate. The hypothetical young scientist in your example may find it difficult and unrewrding to do climate research in the United States. But Oxbridge, the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and the Weizman Institute will welcome bright minds with open arms. The US can become an agrarian society again — “breadbasket of the world” has a nice ring to it.