[bokonist]

Well, I'm not a Senator. But one of my close friends works in the Senate, on climate change, and is responsible for briefing his Senator about the issue. And you know what? My friend doesn't really know that much about climate change. I would trust him less than the top commenter on a Hacker News articles. Hackers live in a world where they continuously have to make tough technical decisions that result in success or failure, that provides discipline at truth seeking. Staffers do not live in such a world. And while most hackers do not usually study climate change full time, on every comment thread on issue there are usually a select few who really know what they are talking about and get voted to the top.

I have two reasons for caring about climate change:

1) I find it intellectually fascinating. To me it unfolds like a mystery story, except one in which we're all involved. Thus I want to find the truth simply because I innately enjoy truth seeking.

2) Elite opinion matters for policy making. It might not matter directly. But maybe it's a NY Times reporter who reads a comment on Hacker News, that causes him to write an article differently, that is read by a Senate staffer. Or maybe it's a Hacker News reader who sees the article and decides to alter his career path and become a top scientist. Or maybe its a reader who forwards an article to his friend who is a policy maker.

Hacker News is a site of elite, intellectually curious people. Talking about important, controversial issues in any technical subject should be fair game. What's important is that whatever topic we discuss on this site, we discuss well (thoughtfully, politely, and backed with evidence).