Less than a decade ago, "wait and see" arguments about climate change still circulated. "We often hear that there is a'scientific consensus' about climate change," physicist Steven E. Koonin wrote in The Wall Street Journal in 2014. "But as far as the computer models go, there isn't a useful consensus at the level of detail relevant to assessing human influences." The idea was that the world needed more data before it could respond to the threat posed by global warming--assuming such research indicated a response was even necessary. Today, outright denialism is dormant, but delay tactics have never been more in vogue.