I don't think this is a question of politics, this is a question of science, quite possibly the most important question of science for the predominant demographic on HN. The question of whether or not climate change will lead to the catastrophic effects that some are predicting is much more important than the question of, e.g. whether the Higgs boson exists. If climate change is real, and if the worst-case scenarios come to pass, those who are 20-30 today will feel most of the pain.
> Thanks for the extraordinarily reasonable response to my snippy comment.
No worries. Thanks for your informative posts on computer security. That matters too.
I agree with you, but you have to remember that even science is political, and in the US, climate change is _absolutely_ political. So you'll get knee-jerk partisan responses.
You're right. This is political, and I should have just come out and embraced that. But I would also point out that being political and being scientific are not mutually exclusive, and being political and being relevant to HN are not mutually exclusive either, and just because past political discussions on HN have degenerated into chaos doesn't necessarily mean that all future such discussions are necessarily doomed to suffer the same fate.
It's like I said in my OP: if climate change is real, then it's the 20-30-somthing crowd that hangs out here that will be the first to feel the real pain. One of the mottos around here is supposed to be: build something people want, and tackle hard problems. Well, something that will avert planetary disaster seems to me like it ought to be something that people want, and figuring out what that thing might be seems like a pretty hard problem.
> Thanks for the extraordinarily reasonable response to my snippy comment.
No worries. Thanks for your informative posts on computer security. That matters too.