Well, that was an intersting exercise and responses. It also managed to call to mind one of my favourite songs from the 90s, Del Amitri's "Nothihg Ever Happens", with the iconic line "While Angry from Manchester writes to complain about all the repeats on TV" - I've always wondered, mrangry, is your handle and location a reference to that track? I also love the line "The martians could land in the car-park and no-one would care."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxbIU0X-lCI

It does look as if the main response was indeed it's an issue we need to deal with, which pretty much aligns with my view, and I'm kind of glad only one person went for the "hoax" option. Though as I posted upthread my main aim was to gather data, not to try and persuade anyone in any specific direction, one thing quarter of a century on the Internet has taught me is that you almost never "win" an argument on-line, espectaly on a polarising topic, and that neither burying people under weight of evidence, nor ranting at them, is liable to change anyone involved's mind.

One thing I do have to correct though, classically there were always four genders.

Masculine - he/him.
"Have you seen that new lad behind the bar down the club? He's hawt!"

Feminine - she/her.
"Did you hear the speech on economic inequality that Cynthia gave? She'd make an awesome prime minister!"

Common (or non-binary) - they/them.
"Oh look, someone's left their phone on the bar, keep it safe, I hope they come back for it!"

Neuter - that/it.
"Have you seen that new 5000 horsepower locomotive BNSF have just bought? That thing is a total monster!"

I do actually at some point have a post to make on gender, identity, presentation, and how these interact in a place like this where people expect things to be mainly classified visually, but that's a different topic for another day.

Thanks to everyone who voted, and responded, all were appreciated.

Wasn't there a hole in the O zone that was going to kill us, wasn't there an ice age coming in the 70s that was going to kill us. Cherynoble (sp) was supposed to wipe the earth clean around it, instead mother nature took over. But as long as the 14 year old making millions off Netflix says it, it must be true

There was, and problem was that the ozone layer protects us from UV from the sun - without it, we wouldn't tan, we'd burn and mostly die young of skin cancer. It was caused by CFCs used as refrigerant gasses and propellants in aerosols, they were phased out and the hole has now significantly closed, though I don't think it's entirely gone yet.


Wasn't necessarily going to kill us, but any significant change in temperature would have dramatic effects on things like crop production. It was only ever a vague theory though, and of course when serious research was undertaken it revealed warming, not cooling. I think perhaps if there were no humans, and hence no CO2 problem, then another ice-age might eventually happen.


Chernobyl. And yes, that's an interesting one, as the environmental effects were nothing like as severe as were originally expected. It still killed everyone who worked to stop the meltdown getting worse (without sufficient protection) and the ruins will be toxic to life, at least close up, for tens of thousands of years. Not everything dangerous is obvious or immediate, think smoking, or heavy drinking, both can kill you, but no-one drops dead from their first cigarette or bottle of booze.

This is an interesting article from the UK's Cancer Research charity, on the after-effects of Chernobyl and the more recent Fukushima Diachi disaster in Japan.
https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2016/04/26/30-years-since-chernobyl-and-5-years-since-fukushima-what-have-we-learnt/

Strongly agree, it's a massive pile of scaremongering bollocks. The climate change cult has to keep the panic going, as if it leaked out that it wasn't as serious as was at first thought, the entire house of cards would implode and collapse

Growing up in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, I remember cold 5 to 10Celsius Octobers every day in October. This October 2021: it is 20 to 25 Celsius every day.

Of course my personal cherrypicked observation is NOT meant to outweigh the collection & analysis of MASSIVE amounts of data over LONG periods of time, like climate scientists have done and do.

But, for the unscientific, who prefer cherrypicked personal observations over rigorous
well-disciplined science, then I am giving mine. And it's consistent with what the IPCC
has warned the world for 30+ years now.

Then "election fraud" and "illegal immigration" are just massive piles of scaremongering bollocks created by politicians to deny people's right to vote, including prisoners' right to vote,
and to take away their freedoms.

And it's a MYTH that it is "illegal" to exercise one's freedom of speech to say WTF one wants
on one's own channel or website. Regardless whether some law like the First Amendment protects that speech or not is irrelevant: there exist no laws against it.

And there is NO such thing as an "obesity epidemic" or an "opioid epidemic". You just greatly increased people's sympathy for Fat Pride.
Nobody's forcing anybody to consume opioids or forcing anybody to eat and get fat.

My opinion on the law and history deserves as much respect and to be heard
as much as AGW-deniers and big Fossil Fuel companies get THEIR voice heard
by politicians.

ZERO respect for anybody who refuses to look at the harmful consequences THEIR actions cause but scream about imaginary "harms" caused by easy targets: immigrants, pharmaceutical companies, poll workers who count vote.

i heard on NPR (for whatever you consider THAT to be worth) that the main pharmaceutical company developing opioid painkillers KNEW their products were HIGHLY addictive, but hid that detail as they marketed their products as non-addictive. Why? Profits, of course.

The report went on to mention how the state of Oklahoma was one of the Plaintiffs suing the pharmaceutical industry to help clean up the addiction mess that had been created.

One blog that i follow is written by a RN working in an LA county emergency room. Among many other various subjects, he has mentioned what he has seen first hand dealing with opioid addicts. I've never had any serious addiction to anything (wetlook, perhaps) and thank god i've never needed opioid painkillers.

But i've seen & read SO much, and i never had thought to file away any and all of the links i've read over the years. But in many cases, nobody really seems to care what links might be included anyways? I mean, what would it take to change your mind that an opioid epidemic exists?

We might even get around to debating the obesity epidemic someday? (one argument at a time, perhaps?)

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "THE LEFT"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiEdui05BeY

The sooner we realise that we ain't gonna survive on this planet, the better

Pandemic, China, asteroid, solar flare, zombies, Putin, artificial intelligence.... something is going to kill us off a long time before the planet does it.

All this global warming crap does my head in. I'll say it..... I don't care NOTHING we do is going to change the outcome.

Stop pissing about planting trees, designing mentally expensive electric cars and instead invest in getting us off this planet.

China will own the moon soon, and we are all just sitting here bickering about gas boilers