Mike, your tone is patronising. Y2K was hype to get programmers jobs and make academics look clever. Yes it did ameliorate to some extent BUT the spiel was that it was all too late and global meltdown was imminent.
All we ask is proportion and measure in public announcements. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mike Carrell Sent: 05 September 2005 18:11 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Global warming From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Global warming > Jed and Vo, > One has to avoid the shock-horror disaster tactics because the public will > get sick off it. Remember Y2K and all that? > > Yes, plan new technology but don't pull the public's collective plonker. > Don't cry wolf. > R. ------------------------------------- This particular rant is very short of a full deck. The Y2K crises was averted by *very* intense activity by *many* programmers in *many* responsible industries to find and correct the old computer code that could have cuased some very nasty results. Those warnings *were* heeded by responsible management. The repeated warnings of levee collapse *were ignored* by politicians and administrators. Jed has been reading Jered Diamond's "Collapse", a very thoughtful book about how human societies have made choices leading to failure. And Diamond makes clear that it isn't the greedy management of the big bad corproations which are so glibly caricatured that does the dirty work. It is all of us, the stockholders who want effortless profits from the corporations, and the legislators who want greedy citizens to re-elect them, that set these wheels in motion. As Pogo said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us". The finger of greed points in all directions. Mike Carrell > > > >
