Do you know that you don't know what will happen in the future? If you have such self awareness, then the intrade prediction site might be some help as its market prices provide some evidence on what market participants think is the probability of future events. For example, intrade says that President Obama has a 57% chance of being re-elected and that the probability of the Congress enacting carbon cap and trade regulation by the end of 2013 is 10% (but this asset features little trading volume and thus may not be that informative).
If you look around their website, you will see some climate futures markets. I foresee this market posting more climate change events in the future such as; "the probability the temperature will exceed 110 degrees in Phoenix on more than 30 days during the next summer". People who are considering moving to Phoenix or already live in Phoenix and are thinking about investing in coping strategies would benefit from this information. Entrepreneurs will also benefit from this information.
If people have accurate forecasts of future event probabilities, does this raise your confidence that they will make "good" decisions that further their own self interests? To quote the President, "yes we can".
For those of you with an interest in the economics of prediction markets, I'd suggest reading this paper and this paper.
