Climate people—researchers, ESG stewards, philanthropists—can forget, under the pressure of facts, how alien statistics might feel to those of us new to Climate World. They’ll come to a conference and put “419.68” on the screen. Everyone sighs and nods. They speak in fractions or trillions of dollars or trees, depending on the context. These numbers are entire careers, tenures, grants awarded or not. But if you don’t live in Climate World, they don’t resonate quite the same way. You have to learn to appreciate them. Of course, most of the time what’s on display is worse than the numbers; it’s about probabilities. I’ve learned to think of all bell curves as roller coasters—a big ladder on the left, starting at the 5th percentile, the bottom tail. You climb up the middle, hang around a bit, and enjoy the view. Then you go down a steep, scary slide to the right, down to the 95th percentile, the upper tail. (Paul Ford)