Global warming is being marketed today just as Y2K was marketed just before the twenty-first century. Will it turn out that the dire predictions of global warming will be as accurate as the Y2K predictions?
To make a living, scientists or engineers must get funding for their projects. In order to get this funding, they are forced to become marketers and try to sell their ideas to their potential benefactors.
One good reason for getting funding is to claim that some time to come tragedy will befall mankind if something is not done about it now. As long as enough data is generated to signal impending doom, the influx of funds will continue to those conducting the research.
The impending doom is also good for the media. Journalists have a lot to talk about; the more they scare the public, the more attention the public gives media networks, and the more advertising dollars they get.
Politicians must also be involved.
The more laws they pass to save the world, the more the mass conditioned media applaud their efforts and insure their re-election.
Let’s take a look at what the media say will be a great tragedy, and how tens of billions of dollars are spent to avoid it. That disaster never happened and a lot of money was spent being wasted. This show should stay fresh in all but the youngest memories. It was labeled “Y2K” and ended over seven years ago.
It arose because early mainframe computers were programmed to use two digits to store the year instead of four. Thus “98” means 1998 and “95” means 1995. Older software will not know how to interpret “00”; it could mean 1900 or 2000. It is believed that some financial systems could crash if this problem was not fixed by the time the clock hit midnight brought on 2000.
Many banks and financial institutions were aware of this problem and had fixed or upgraded their software long before the end of the century.
With the help of the news media, “Y2K” turned into serious business during the last decades of the twentieth century. Experts are often seen popping up on TV warning of the terrible things that would happen if every single computerized device wasn’t made “Y2K” compatible.
“Y2K” even made it to theaters. In the popular film “Office Space” the main character, Peter Gibbons, is a “Y2K” engineer. “Y2K: The Movie” is a television film released in late 1999 that depicts all the possible horrors that can occur because of “Y2K.”
In 1999, I worked for the Chicago branch of the Technical College as a systems administrator. The college has more than eighty branches throughout the US and each branch receives policies from corporate headquarters. I was in charge of maintaining more than 300 computers, most of which were used as student laboratory computers.
It was early 1999, when the company referral came. All computers in the school must be made “Y2K” compatible. I tried to explain to the school director that it made no sense to upgrade student laboratory computers, because they were not used in production and most student-run PC software was 2000 acclaimed. Experts had told them ROMs (Read Only Memories) should improved.
On newer computers I can download ROM updates and flash ROMs.
On older computers the ROM chip had to be changed physically. We had to get a “Y2K” engineer to come and change the chip. This service costs thousands of dollars. What really annoys me, is that requests for things that students or instructors really need are always rejected, instead corporate idiots spend their money on useless upgrades. No doubt, they definitely made all their eighty schools “Y2K” compatible.
As 1999 drew near, rumors of impending doom became more prevalent. The media continued to stress the possibility of a riot. People bought bottled water, wood stoves and other survival utensils, expecting worse.
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