Don,
The linked article is interesting, but I wonder about your concluding sentence. Did farmers and other settlers in the U.S. a century or two ago believe the same about weather forecasting? And if they did, would a majority of U.S. citizens agree with them now, or has the cost of research into weather patterns and launching of weather satellites saved money over the long term? Science and technology seems to advance faster now than in the past, so maybe we should consider our children's and grandchildren's generations in addition to our own when evaluating relative costs of mitigation and prediction.
Mary C.