Is Yahoo Answers - Global Warming a"Just For Fun" site or is it credible?

The entire Yahoo! Answers site is "just for fun". No one asked me to provide credentials before I started answering questions.

If I were to follow the masses I'd be on the AGW bandwagon, fortunately you are correct that the truth is not up for a vote. If I observe an earthen barrier island eroding from an ocean on one side and a river on the other, no amount of spin is going to make me believe that the previously nomadic people that populate that island are now in peril because of global warming.

Mentioning shoveling global warming off your drive is to contrast the ignorance that the Sahara desert that was once populated, lush and green is expanding because of man made global warming. No amount of spin is going to hide the history of drought in the regions surrounding that desert.

We know for certain the massive river deltas of india were formed over thousand of years flooding and no amount of spin is going to change the fact that over 100 million people live on that delta, despite risks from floods or the fact that those floods are going to continue to occur despite our existance.

You know for a fact that you are more likely to die when you get in your car and drive than if you were to huddle in your house yet you still take that risk even though you know the cost could be far more deadly. Perhaps in order to save you from your own risky behaviour of driving we should keep you from getting in a car. As ludicrous as that sounds there are those that ascribe to this thought process and it's not coincidental that those same people believe global warming is man made and we must do something to save humanity from itself.

I understand you are scared because you are being presented with a reality that you have very little control of but shooting first and questioning later is not going to save the planet.

1. Why not both

2. The stance : http://forgood.yahoo.com/go_green

3. Its just as easy to exploit the truth as a lie.

4. What is a correct answer?

5. Taking public opinion to a personal level is a scary thought.

YA itself provides a forum, but does not and should not take a position on its own.

Whether Yahoo itself should take a position is a separate question, and one that you could ask of any major company.

YA does not and should not ask for credentials. As you say, your credibility on YA depends on what you do on YA.

Some of the people here are talking nonsense, as you point out. Some put up a smokescreen of science, with references to industry-funded websites, or misquotations from real scientific papers. Some provide good well-informed evidence for what they say.

It is up to you to work out which is which. Going by what you say, you shouldn't find it too difficult.

Edit: I always make a special point on here in opening up the "hidden due to low rating" answers, and evaluating them if appropriate.

As for facts not lying there's an old saying "figures never lie and that's why liars figure". It's like when they figure the budget in Washington. They can make a budget increase look like a cut and a cut look like an increase. They aren't lying but by using numbers they can make it say anything they want. Truth is a triple edged sword.