Many learned and professional societies at some time have strayed beyond the limits of what they can support from their scientific knowledge base. Unfortunately, these excursions can alter their image and hurt their credibility. However tempting it is to espouse positions that make a large fraction of members feel good, it is dangerous and in AGU's view wrong to do so. Opposition to the Vietnam War distracted some in the 1970s. The Space Station drew opponents and proponents, in many cases on economic rather than scientific grounds. And today 'climate change' is evoking extreme reactions from some industries and government entities that support the research enterprise and from individual environmental activists and skeptics across the spectrum of opinion.