4 ms·

What motivates these global alarmists? And how do they get money by being so shrill? Is your average citizen just dying to be worried over the next catastrophe

What motivates these global alarmists? And how do they get money by being so shrill? Is your average citizen just dying to be worried over the next catastrophe and willing to throw money at whomever can scare them the most?

jdminhbg 17y ago
"Is your average citizen just dying to be worried over the next catastrophe and willing to throw money at whomever can scare them the most?" You can page back through the last umpteen national election results if you doubt this is true.
hga 17y ago
I don't know, but this specific phenomena goes back to 200 AD (sic), and then you can go back to, oh, the Book of Revelations and so on. There seems to be a strong drive in at least some people towards this sort of thing. Politicians gain power by not "letting a serious crisis go to waste" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yeA_kHHLow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yeA_kHHLow); how real a crisis is irrelevant. Funding naturally follows for those talking up the crisis.
- billswift 17y ago
  It isn't just the politicians either, where do you think the major environmental organizations get their money? Since the major cleanup during the 1970s, they have invented "crisis" after "crisis" to keep the money coming in. The "ozone hole" and "acid rain" crises were as overblown, running toward outright fraudulent, as the AGW crap.
- cgranade 17y ago
  This is why you refer to terrorists getting their hands on nuclear weapons, I'm sure.
Kadin 17y ago
> Is your average citizen just dying to be worried over the next catastrophe and willing to throw money at whomever can scare them the most? If you doubt this, I'd like to introduce you to the Department of Homeland Security.
- hga 17y ago
  Not a good example, unless you don't believe jihadists killed 3,000 on 9/11, aren't trying to get their hands on nuclear warheads, etc. I think we can argue structure (e.g. DHS vs. the old, FBI vs. MI5), means, competence, etc. while still accepting the reality of a threat.
protomyth 17y ago
Money is one motivator. Fame or the crusade itself may be others. Actually believing in the disaster and wanting to save people's lives is another motivator. It depends on the person. The money argument is a pretty easy one. We are at a potential shift point in how we power ourselves. The problem is that the "new" power sources are not economical yet. Political pressure with subsides can make it economical (for the companies involved). Several politicians in the US are heavily invested in wind or solar. Fear works in spending public money. The natural progression will happen when oil prices are too high and newer sources become economical or some breakthrough happens (think the progression of aluminum). Disaster / Fear means the change needs to happen before the market would normally change on its own. I really wish media and politics had stayed out of the science. I mourn the loss of objectivity, testing, and discovery.
- dgabriel 17y ago
  "I really wish media and politics had stayed out of the science. I mourn the loss of objectivity, testing, and discovery." I'm sure Galileo felt the same way... Science that might fundamentally shift worldviews has always been subject to meddling by the powers that be.
  - protomyth 17y ago
    I am more concerned about the media's sudden punditry.

jdminhbg 17y ago

"Is your average citizen just dying to be worried over the next catastrophe and willing to throw money at whomever can scare them the most?" You can page back through the last umpteen national election results if you doubt this is true.

hga 17y ago

I don't know, but this specific phenomena goes back to 200 AD (sic), and then you can go back to, oh, the Book of Revelations and so on. There seems to be a strong drive in at least some people towards this sort of thing. Politicians gain power by not "letting a serious crisis go to waste" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yeA_kHHLow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yeA_kHHLow); how real a crisis is irrelevant. Funding naturally follows for those talking up the crisis.

billswift 17y ago
It isn't just the politicians either, where do you think the major environmental organizations get their money? Since the major cleanup during the 1970s, they have invented "crisis" after "crisis" to keep the money coming in. The "ozone hole" and "acid rain" crises were as overblown, running toward outright fraudulent, as the AGW crap.
cgranade 17y ago
This is why you refer to terrorists getting their hands on nuclear weapons, I'm sure.

Kadin 17y ago

> Is your average citizen just dying to be worried over the next catastrophe and willing to throw money at whomever can scare them the most? If you doubt this, I'd like to introduce you to the Department of Homeland Security.

hga 17y ago
Not a good example, unless you don't believe jihadists killed 3,000 on 9/11, aren't trying to get their hands on nuclear warheads, etc. I think we can argue structure (e.g. DHS vs. the old, FBI vs. MI5), means, competence, etc. while still accepting the reality of a threat.

protomyth 17y ago

Money is one motivator. Fame or the crusade itself may be others. Actually believing in the disaster and wanting to save people's lives is another motivator. It depends on the person. The money argument is a pretty easy one. We are at a potential shift point in how we power ourselves. The problem is that the "new" power sources are not economical yet. Political pressure with subsides can make it economical (for the companies involved). Several politicians in the US are heavily invested in wind or solar. Fear works in spending public money. The natural progression will happen when oil prices are too high and newer sources become economical or some breakthrough happens (think the progression of aluminum). Disaster / Fear means the change needs to happen before the market would normally change on its own. I really wish media and politics had stayed out of the science. I mourn the loss of objectivity, testing, and discovery.

dgabriel 17y ago
"I really wish media and politics had stayed out of the science. I mourn the loss of objectivity, testing, and discovery." I'm sure Galileo felt the same way... Science that might fundamentally shift worldviews has always been subject to meddling by the powers that be.
- protomyth 17y ago
  I am more concerned about the media's sudden punditry.