Have you ever wondered where and how people obtain the information they attempt to get you to believe?

Question

Information about global warming and natural resource conservation...oil in particular? Example

I've heard stuff before about the literal millions of barrels of oil we would save if we all inflated our tires to the correct tire pressure. How do they know the correct number of people that are under inflating, or even if you are under inflating? Do they take into consideration the wind? The fact that you may be inflating properly but drive against the wind which will cause you to use more gas/oil. What about over inflating? Isn't that more of a problem that under inflating? I mean over inflating causes the tire to wear more quickly on the center of the tire, thus causing it to wear out quicker, thus causeing you to have to buy a new tire. It takes 6.5 gallons of oil to produce a new tire, so wouldn't it be better for the environment to under inflate? I hope you're catching my sarcasm here. Just curious about where people get all the information about saving the planet they are always spewing? Any ideas? From the net? Because you know if they post a link to a website, or published paper then it has to be true...lol

Is the earth flat? Do a searth for flat earth theory and you'll see there are people that believe that, and post ideas on it, so it must be true too..lol

Answer 1

You're much to independent; this won't sit with in the green lunatic corner of Y!A.

Answer 2

no-one can calculate accurately but we have to with estimates and theories on why we do what we do and the consequences.  you seem ill-inclined to do anything about being part of the solution so assume you're part of the problem

Answer 3

Some of the points you make are good.  I'll jump in on a couple others, though.

> How do they know the correct number of people that are under inflating

They probably did some kind of survey of say 10,000 people, and if that found that x percent of them underinflated then they likely assumed that approximately that percent of the general population underinflates.

> Do they take into consideration the wind?

That's an independent variable, so not relevant.

Properly-inflated tires driving into the wind will give better MPG than underinflated tires driving into the wind.

Properly-inflated tires driving with the wind will give better MPG than underinflated tires driving with the wind.

Yes, always driving with the wind would give better MPG than always driving against it.  But you're kind of doing the same thing as asking why should you wear your seatbelt if heart disease is the #1 killer.

> What about over inflating?

I haven't actually seen the commercial.  Is he saying "everybody go out and add 6psi to your tires"?  Or "everybody go out and make sure your tires are at the pressure they should be at"?  If the former, you make a very good point.  If the latter, your point is irrelevant.  Like I said, I haven't seen it.

> Because you know if they post a link to a website, or published paper then it has to be true

Preach on... :)

Answer 4

We can't alone stop global,warming, deforestation of the jungles,  deserts from expanding, etc.

What we can do is pull the weeds in your own garden, make friends with your neighbors and oh yes keep your tire pressure properly inflated .  While you are at it, how long has it been since you last  checked your oil?

Answer 5

Obama talks out his ***.

Answer 6

good observation!

After many years of watching, and an engineering degree. I am no longer surprised that most people will agree with, and quote any source that agrees with their preconceived  notion without examination. Right and left wing included.

The tire inflation question is irrevelent, but politicians will make the most of it while they ignore the real important energy issues.

Why did Pelosi shut down congress for 5 weeks?

Answer 7

Apparently the hand-out sheets on global warming came from some kind of computer program that is able to forsee the future.  Al Gore seems to guard it closely and only shares the results that will spur his lobbyists into action.  But computer programs are corrupt sometimes so I'm sure he's adept at rebooting by now, though each time he does the plaing field changes somewhat.  As a lefty it goes without saying that he's anti-oil, anti-nuclear power, anti-progress.  Al Gore is currently president of the flat-earth society as well, which makes him very credible with the IPCC and the agw crowd.

Answer 8

This question shows that you have noticed the uniformity of information coming from the AGW promoters in comparison to the scattered personal views of those who deny its reality. This is because those who sign on to the AGW pogrom get a facts to talk about from the ad agency employed by the oil companies to promote the scam. So it is not at all unusual to see such uniformity of response on all aspects they fell the need to debate on.

Added info

Davem, but he is an oil millionaire himself so yes Al does believe in big oil first, Big Al second and everybody else gets leftovers!

Answer 9

What are you whining about? They're just trying to help you save money on gas.... stop over analyzing it so much....shouldn't we be worrying about more important things that are going on right now?

Answer 10

There have been scientific studies, of course.  The people supporting this are getting their information from scientific sources.  People who ridicule it are getting their information from political sources, and displaying their prejudices, not facts.  Here's one study, of many:

Joshua M. Pearce and Jason T. Hanlon, Energy conservation from systematic tire pressure regulation, Energy Policy, Volume 35, Issue 4, April 2007, Pages 2673-2677

The studies find that underinflation is a serious problem while overinflation isn't.  Many organizations, such as the American Automobile Association, have issued brochures urging their members to save gas by checking tire pressure.

This is well established scientific fact.  Faced with the truth about this, the McCain campaign has retracted their criticism of Senator Obama.  Once again, they simply look like fools.

Answer 11

People will search out any information to support what they be live in and in that they will always find what ever they see to make themselves feel more comfortable about the position they hold. Now if your in the minority you always going to be in a uphill battle no matter how factual your data is for example the sky is blue, we all know the sky is blue but if a large group gets the popular kids to believe that is it really yellow, and then you get the heard mentality going safety in number and all those folks cant be wrong type crowds, they you have it the sky is now reported to be yellow because so an so who is a popular figure said so.