The second way in which expected value is relevant when figuring out how to respond to the threat of climate change is that it shows why individuals have reason to mitigate climate change just as much as governments do. Over your lifetime, your individual greenhouse gas contribution will only increase the temperature of the planet by about half a billionth of a degree Celsius. That, you might think, is such a small difference as to be negligible, so you shouldn’t bother trying to reduce your personal emissions.
