“This is an innovative way to approach the issue, and the authors are up front about the limitations of their analysis, because it is so new,” says Tracey Halloway, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved in the report but read a draft. “The optimist in me knows there are a lot of moving parts, and it could end up being easier to be sustainable, easier to be resilient, than we thought, and maybe in some ways that will offset the costs that they project.”