2. Western governments labelled the Chinese massacre in Tiananmen square a massacre, but when the Thai government did the same thing in Bangkok it was quickly forgotten. Boris Yeltsin's actions in arbitrarily dismissing the opposition in Moscow (and then shelling them) was labelled a victory for democracy, even though he was a former hard-line Communist.
3. Decision-maker optimism and lack of criteria for decisions on appropriate responses to climate change are generally greater obstacle to initiating action that scientific uncertainty. Yet it is often discussion of scientific uncertainty that can have the most paralyzing effect on decision makers.