"If the projections are correct they will show one thing for certain: politicians, economists and scientists cannot assess risks correctly." New Scientist this week had a short article on the "Limits to Growth", revisiting the 1972 book by Meadows et al. The book gave an account of a computer model of how the world's population, resources and economy would function over the coming 130 years. It predicted a disaster in the twenty first century if nothing were changed. At first the book created a stir and world leaders all agreed that action was needed. It then attracted ferocious attacks on ideological grounds, the media carried uniform condemnation and declared the predictions to be incorrect. Within 5 years the book and its predictions had been forgotten by the bulk of the population. This media furore was a forerunner of the recent reactions to predictions of "global warming". The New Scientist article pointed out that the predictions in Limi...