Is Global Warming the new Y2K?

Question

Scientists will say anything to keep their federal funded dead end resereach alive.

Scientists also estimate the sun will burn out 10 Billion years from now.

I personally don't believe there is global warming and treat this new scare tactic as a fraud and a scam.

99% scientists? LMFAO give me a break. Liar.

Answer 1

"people worked their butts off to prevent Y2K"

Um, no, I worked for PwC at the time and I knew people in the tech consulting group and to a person they all said - and this was in '99 - that the Y2K thing was a complete boondoggle. Anyone who thinks it was real, I'd like to sell you a "Cubs Lose" pencil - it looks like an ordinary No. 2 pencil but as long as you keep it in your desk drawer, the Cubs won't win the World Series. I'll sell it to you for only $400.

As for AGW, look, there have been other warm periods, including some that were warmer than the present period to date and that occurred when CO2 levels were lower than they are today and the causes of which are not known. Does that DISPROVE the theory that we're causing or exacerbating the present warming? Not at all. It DOES mean that you can't just rest the case for AGW entirely on the very rough coincidence between the Industrial Revolution and the present warming, and that's really all they have.

Then it comes down to burden of proof - am I free to do something until you prove it causes the harm in question or must I disprove every assertion before being allowed to do something? I don't see how the latter is workable in a free society.

Answer 2

The answer to your question is "Yes, global warming is the new Y2K." But not for the reason you think. Your assumption is that Y2K was a con job perpetrated by alarmists. As a software engineer and tester for a large software company who tested for Y2K-related bugs, and was at the office at 11:59 PM December 31, 1999, I can say we found at least one Y2K bug in our product -- you didn't hear about it because we fixed it in time. Other companies did the same. The reason global warming is the new Y2K is that: 1) there IS a threat (just as there was for Y2K); 2) nobody knows exactly how large that threat is; 3) it's easy for people who don't know what they're talking about to claim that the danger is exaggerated; 4) if we do nothing we will be harmed a lot (but nobody knows exactly how much); and 5) if we make a serious effort to solve the problem then we can prevent most of the damage -- as we did for Y2K (at a cost of a lot of money). So, yes, global waming is the new Y2K -- it's up to us to prevent the problem from spiraling out of control.

Answer 3

Yes, I'd like to know how estimating that the sun is going to run out of fuel in 10 BILLION years is supposed to be some sort of scam to get research grants.

Global warming has been researched in depth for the past 20 years, and people have been talking about the possibility of global warming since the middle of the 20th century. The fact that people like you refuse to see the obvious and unbiased facts that the research is based on is just confusing to me. Then again - it's usually the right wingers that believe that the Genesis story is 100% accurate and the earth is only ~7000 years old.

99% of the world's scientists believe in global warming, and the vast majority accept that it is VERY likely that human activity is accelerating it. There is no other credible explanation for the sudden rise in temperature that the planet has seen in the past 100 years.

Why am I wasting my time on you... Good luck living with your head in the sand.

EDIT:
You don't believe me? Try to find a peer-reviewed scientific paper that argues that human activity isn't responsible for global warming. Since you can't I'll just let you sit there and suck your thumb.

EDIT #2:
The reason that this period of warming is blamed on human activity is simple -- the climate just doesn't change this fast. Warming by a couple degrees C over 100 years doesn't sound very impressive - but this is unheard of based on the geologic record. Just because the planet has had warm/cool periods befor doesn't explain why this has happened so quickly. The fact that there is already so much CO2 in the atmosphere explains why the planet is warming so quickly. In fact this is even more scary because it means that the planet will most likely continue to warm no matter what we do for many years.

People that think we would have to "triple the cost of energy" are simply misguided. Wind/solar power are extremely cheap and clean ways to generate electricity - we just need to make the initial investment to put the infrastructure in place. Claiming that without the use of coal/oil/methane we would not be able to afford electricity is simply absurd.

The facts:
The earth is warming at a rate unheard of in the planet's history.
CO2 is a very common greenhouse gas.
Human activity releases BILLIONS of TONS of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.
CO2 levels in the atmosphere are at their highest level in millions of years.
The warming has accelarated as we have burned more and more fossil fuels.
There is simply no other credible explanation for the absurd rate of warming that we are seeing.

People that think scientists are in this "for the money" show that they have no idea what they are talking about. Scientists get paid very little (with the exception of those working in private industry - you know, like the ones at Exxon-Mobile or Lockheed Martin). Trust me - nobody is getting rich by doing research on global warming. Al Gore was already rich - so don't point at him.

EDIT #3:
The ozone hole was real, is real, and is still there. Thanks to the near-ban on CFC's worldwide the ozone is recovering - but there is still a huge hole in the ozone layer. The fact that you think you were fooled is just too funny for words.

EDIT #4:
Anybody that's taking this guy's question seriously.... Here's another little gem asked by this genius:
"Do atheists and non believers believe in Satan?
Because Satan wants you to believe there is no God."

Sorry, I wasn't going to throw away my time on you... but seriously, grow up kid.

Answer 4

Good analogy. Y2k was a real problem that would have caused enormous problems IF we had not responded to the issue.

Answer 5

The same people telling us about 'global warming' were screaming about the 'ozone hole' 15 years ago.

Fool us once, shame on them - if they fool us twice, shame on us.

Answer 6

people worked their butts off to prevent Y2K. So offhand I would say no. You are a crazy conspiracy theorist.

Answer 7

Bullseye,Guy.
Dead center in the 10 ring.
30 years ago it was a coming ICE AGE.
Keep those Federal grant dollars flowing.
A thousand years ago they were growing GRAPES in GREENLAND, try that today.

Answer 8

It's much worse than that. Look it up on the internet. It's not a theory. It's scientifically verifiable fact.

Answer 9

yes...very true. i don't think they'll realize the true cause of "global warming", the sun...

Answer 10

GLOBAL WARMING IS NOT MAN MADE...read it and weap