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Comment by Mountain_Skies | Hacker News Reader

And in fifteen years when humanity still exists, how will these no longer young folks react? Will they feel mislead and turn against those who promoted the ideas? Turn their backs on such issues forever, no longer entertaining the possibility that it is a problem but longer term? Or just move the goal posts?

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They will understand human nature if they are bright enough, and live the rest of the life with healthy skepticism.

And the high-schoolers will be angry at them for not understanding that the end is nigh and will organize weekly demonstrations, etc

In fifteen years, there will be a fresh generation of young folks who have no memory of this failed doomsday prediction to indoctrinate.

We just had a generation that grew up thinking the world might end any second in nuclear armageddon. And look where that got us: We still have more than enough nuclear weapons to wipe out all major cities, even more countries have those weapons and neither US-Russia relations nor India-Pakistan relations are particulary good. But nobody even thinks about it because nothing ever happened.

See: Recurring Christian End Times prophecy.

It is nothing like that. Predictions about climate change, while often imprecise, are largely evidence based. Religious prophecies are not. Regardless of if you believe the doomsayers and the timeline, we are clearly trending in that direction.

> Predictions about climate change, while often imprecise, are largely evidence based. Religious prophecies are not.

"The world will end in 15 years" is fundamentally based on faith, whether that is faith in science or in a prophet of some form. Saying "but MY faith is in something real" isn't a valid argument.

(and since the actual climate scientists say that the world is NOT going to end in 15 years...)

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