In 1985 Carl Sagan testified before the US Congress about climate change. He laid out the foundations for understanding its reality, outlined the consequences that it would have, and enumerated some next steps for the United States to respond to the challenge. He was reasonable, acknowledging that drastic measures like banning fossil fuels outright would break the economy, and provided well-reason actions that could be taken instead. Virtually nothing came of it, and now we're seeing everything he said would happen taking place in our world. He was no prophet. He was a man of science who looked at evidence, tested hypotheses, and drew tentative conclusions that were open to further evidence and testing.
