On a scale of 1 to 10, how useful is this site to you in resolving your questions on global climate change?

Question

When the dust settles, can you get the answers you're looking for? Does the site make you take pause, and reflect? Or is this all about the entertainment value?

Answer 1

Not very useful for resolving questions but great for revelation of posters true character and mindset.

Answer 2

I give it a negative rating!  When the "top answerer" is a 'denier' and has many multiple accounts to control the site,no real discussion about the facts of AGW can be achieved!  I would guess that about half of the 'deniers' are just 'paid trolls' working for the oil companies. The rest are  snarky children or extremely angry,ignorant adults. Somehow they try to link their anger and ignorance to Al Gore. lol!

Answer 3

1.23333333333333333

Answer 4

Like the first poster mentioned, there are many anti-AGW trolls on this site and it often clutters the site with useless answers. Of course, there are also quite a few pro AGW folks who gives useless answers too.

Occasionally I'll see a good response by Dana, but mostly hand waving and bias; JS will usually give fairly good response on economic issues, but he gets a little lost when he ventures into the scientific realm; dx is pretty reliable on the scientific questions; gcnp will give mostly correct answers, but he seems to think he is correct more often than he is; I can respect the answers by folks like pegminer, who work in the field; etc...

Overall, based on entertainment value (with the occasional good answer or reference thrown in), i'll give Y!A an 8.

Answer 5

On such a controversial subject as global climate change I cannot assess the accuracy of the answers but am convinced that most of them were given with good intentions and to the best of their knowledge which is why I will give this site a rating of 10.

Answer 6

About a **3**

It all boils down to this ....

Y!A is a fun place to pass some time and share some knowledge.

From the beginning, Y!A tells you the important thing is to abide by the TOS (Terms of Service) and CG (Community Guidelines).

Go read those things carefully and you will see that the **accuracy** of any answer is never mentioned.  

So, with that said, and in response to your question, "can you get the answers you're looking for?", yes, you can get answers but how meaningful and accurate they are is completely unpredictable.

Hope this helps.

Answer 7

I have found it very useful, the past 12 years of my live have been working in a manufacturing environment  as a production and operation manager.  As you can imagine environmentalist were not necessarily seen as a friend and more as foe.   Since coming to this site I have acquired some knowledge, however I find reading the different answers and the personalities behind them more interesting.  There are times I get angry,  there are times I am impressed, and times when I laugh a little.  Overall I agree with  Evan M.   I would give this a 10.

Answer 8

1 - 10?  oh, about -2.

it's useless.  for me that is.  because, of course, i know everything already.  ;-)  HEY, they do, why not me?

occasionally, i think we get questions, probably from kids in school, looking for honest help.

in that respect, it's probably good that they get some honest answers -- lord knows they'll get more propaganda than is fair.

Answer 9

The thing is, you should not trust this source as you do not know the credentials of the contributors. Therefore, I would give it a 1. In order to find answers, I look in professional sources I can trust.

And yes, this site is quite entertaining.

Answer 10

Everything in Y!A is entertainment designed to get you to read the ADS.

Answer 11

8/10. I've learned alot from a handful of people here who know what they are talking about and have posted good links. The rest is garbage, but it has helped me understand why the deniers still deny, and their reasons are totally illogical.

I listened to the IQ2 debate before coming to this site and I thought the deniers held their own. After learning more about the issues I relistened to the debate and thought the deniers sounded silly and it seemed apparent that the defenders had rock solid confidence. You can always tell who the person is in a debate who doesn't own the preponderance of facts for his argument- it is the person who sounds like a used car salesman. The person who is calm and cool has all the ammo.

Answer 12

Reading the answers from Bob, Dana, gncp, Keith, Nickel, Byde, et. al. has been very helpful to me.  

The (scientific and other) arguments are overwhelming (more than one meaning for this) and I have benefited greatly from the effort they put forth in presenting and organizing the arguments in a concise way.  Many thanks.

My chief reason for being here, however, is to understand the arguments of the "opposition".

The key issue I’m interested in is why people deny what seems obvious to me.  It’s the curse of knowledge.  The more you understand about a particular subject the more you forget what it’s like to never have known.

The whole idea that we should have to show that a proposed environmental action will be cost neutral and not impede economic development while at the same time they are not required to show that conventional economic development is benign is ludicrous.  

Economic systems are a subset of environmental systems and as such all economic activity is dependent on a functioning biosphere.  All who would use or transform resources should have to show how their activity can be sustained for the long term before being allowed to commence.  

The trouble is, you will find, that the vast majority of all current economic activity carried out by man on this planet is ultimately not sustainable.

And so, we have the current intractable situation where the entire world economy is on a collision course with reality.

I'm trying to find some answers to this conundrum by attempting to understand both my own arguments and those of my “enemy”.

And, of course, ego and entertainment value factor in.  

I have the rare opportunity in my current position to use my free time as I see fit.  Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have had the time to get so involved.  But the opportunity presented itself and I'm taking advantage of it.

It's a 10 for me because now I can see the absolutely clear dichotomy between the two sides.  

The rational posts by those of scientific bent are overwhelming in fact and meticulously lucid in argument.

The denialists may have admirable convictions, and believe what they are doing is right, but their arguments are really just a mess of conflicting nonsense.

It's only a matter of time before their movement implodes.  Rational argument will not win the day directly, as we can see here.  But as the vast middle of the populace begins to realize they have been misled, they will change their political allegiance to whomever offers them a solution.

So, I got the answer I was looking for.

Answer 13

Well, I don't get any answers I'm interested in.  I try to pass along the knowledge I have but some people don't care about logic or facts. I wish they'd split this group into one concerned with global warming science and another for people that want to claim it's a hoax that Gore is getting rich off of.  Maybe then those of us that care about science could actually have a meaningful dialog.  So I'd give this site a rating of 1 at the moment, as being completely useless.

Answer 14

It's definitely useful because there are a few very smart and well-informed people who answer questions here.  When I've got a scientific question, I know I can usually count on someone like gcnp or d/dx to answer it for me.  Granted there are always a bunch of deniers cluttering up the answers with gibberish about how the global warming is just a communist conspiracy, but it's easy enough just to ignore them.

Guys like JS also give me a perspective on the politics of the issue - why conservatives might oppose Lieberman-Warner, for example.  It's useful to get the perspectives of politically conservative AGW proponents.

Overall I usually get at least one helpful answer to my questions, and sometimes many.  I'd say on a scale of 1-10, YA gets an 8 in resolving my questions.

Answer 15

idk a negivie number like -3

Answer 16

It's a mixed bag, sometimes the subject matter can have undulating perspectives. This week and most of last, we all learned about different theories, gravity, weather, age groupings, and imposing ethical standards. Most of it had no direct context to GW, but still provided a source of entertainment. Other times one does experience novel approaches that will justify a new path.

Answer 17

it simply shows that there is no middle ground regarding the topic... you are either liberal and believe, or conservative and do not...

for entertainment purposes... I give it a 10

Answer 18

I too, am grateful for this site, and aware it takes time and effort to maintain.

It is one of the few open forums for discussion of this topic, and as such of great value.

A well earned 10.

Answer 19

zero.

I have asked a dozen times what is the alternate that we can use TODAY to run our homes, or run our cars, without going up to our eyes in debt, and all I keep getting are the dead end answers that lead to $50,000 cars, solar panels that won't run more than one light, wind turbines that cost more than the house and pipe dreams

No real answers what so ever.

I did see a three wheeled death trap they have in CA,  cant wait to see the head lines when one of theses gets ran over by a Ford escort or Volkswagen beetle or even a good size dog.

Answer 20

actually there are several scientific reports about how the earth is actually getting colder not warmer.  im not worried about this at all becuz this is not my permanent home.

Answer 21

Any answers to any questions here need to be taken with a grain of salt.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd pick 0.

Answer 22

I would give it a 7.  I knew before that global warming was largely a political phenomena but answers from the alarmists cemented that idea for me.  The partisanship riper than any political forum.

Answer 23

hard 2 say so many people take shots at people who know its happening but then theres people like u!

id say 9  i am WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! 2 nice! lol jk

Answer 24

2

There are clearly some very intelligent people here who actually read and study the scientific literature.  They are able to answer questions well and support their answers with links to reputable sites.

But 80% of the answers are from scientifically ignorant people (from all sides of the issue) who merely like to assert their opinion without ever taking the time to research the validity of that opinion.

So sifting through the noise to find the actual tidbits of valid information greatly reduces the usefulness of this site.  But it's entertaining to read at times and occasionally I get sincere thanks from someone who was actually interested in learning something.

Answer 25

unfortunately, there are loads of anti global climate change trolls out there who take up the entire thread moaning about Gore. (don't get me started)  

There are a few that talk sense like Dana 1981, and a few that don't Bob.

Just like everyone somedays have fun others be serious but without links don't use the site for quotes.

give it a 7

see "i love Jade Pagett"    is that what was asked?  NO, is it right anyway, NO!

Answer 26

If 1 is least useful, I give it a  0 .

The gw alarmists have their minds made up that its all man-made problems, and won't look at any thing else.

Answer 27

I give it a 10

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If you post your question at the right time of the day and on a week day

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You can get a ton of answers I have two questions right now and I saw the flood of answers start to come in about 2 hours ago

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On the week end you will be lucky if you get 3 answers cause everybody on planet earth is posting questions and with in a couple of minutes it seems

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The question is on page 2 of the question listing

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So place a question and title it good to catch someones eye and make the info included short and to the point

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You will get a good response to it then

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As you will here on Yahoo answers

A world wide view point of answers to your question

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Answer 28

I don't ask questions anymore, but it was the asking of the questions and me doing research behind my own questions where my real learning began. So I feel YA is a stepping stone to really digging into any topic you're interested in. So for that I'd give it a 10.

But you also can't discount the entertainment value. There are some questions and answers that are way out in left field.

Answer 29

`5

Answer 30

This site is indispensable.  It is the best place to START any quest for knowledge, because it can lead to other sources you would otherwise be unaware of.  If you relied solely on the media/government for info, you'd think the planet was going to burst into flames, then flood over, tomorrow.  

Yes, the answers are biased, but hearing all sides of a debate lets the individual determine which theory holds more merit...something you won't find in the "traditional" channels of info.  Just look at the answers above:  If they ran this site, it would be just another parroting media outlet.

Edit:  That would be a "10" in my book on the "usefulness" scale.