I guess they’re figuring that consumers will make their choice based on personality, rather than issues…

This is Not the John McCain New Hampshire Once Loved
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ ken-burns/ this-is-not-the-john-mcca_b_132056.html

…More to the point, he continues almost daily to demonstrate that instability and other judgmental and temperamental concerns, issues and complaints that originally brought a slew of challengers into the Republican primary contests. And in the most important decision of his candidacy, he cynically and irresponsibly chose the supremely unqualified Sarah Palin, cheapening the race as if it were some high school popularity contest or the latest “American Idol” competition.
….

Who is talking “doomsday”? Not “doomsday”, but a very severe crisis that left unchecked and unmitigated will, in all likelihood, constrain the social development of Humans.

Also, your premise about “doomsday”, if by what you mean is collapse, death, and disbandment of social structures that hold civilisation together, then you are utterly wrong. In fact, for almost our entire history, humans have been scratching out an existence one step away of extinction, sometimes, no doubt, due in part to changes in the past in earth’s climate. No humans, until about 7000 years ago, even had civilisations. Since then, the majority of human civilisations have collapsed. The global civilisation we have now isn’t likely going to collapse like previous civilisations though. That doesn’t mean that what it becomes will be better that what we have now, or equal to what we imagine a future might be.

The reasons people who know more than you (most experts on the subject) are concerned is because their theories and their evidence, subjected to a scientific questioning unparalled in human history, have identified great RISKS in allowing carbon dioxide concentrations to rise further in the atmosphere.

People who can only deal in certainty, who idiotically theorise that “there is no reason to believe” only because some see no problems, cannot possibly make any sensible contribution to any discussion on any topic of controversy.

The AGW Climate Change crisis is hurting already.

Wall Street and the climate crisis
http://www.boston.com/ lifestyle/ green/ greenblog/ 2008/ 09/ wall_street_and_the_climate_cr.html

As we confront global climate change - perhaps the biggest challenge mankind has ever faced - business and government leaders have an opportunity to learn from the Wall Street debacle and get it right.

Direct Climate Change Action Now!

On that criteria alone, he has been a miserable failure. GM is getting killed right now, in large part because they are way behind in the R&D pipeline to produce fuel-efficient vehicles.

So he should be fired immediately for that reason. The fact that he’s an AGW denier isn’t specifically related to his poor job performance, although it does give you an idea about his obstinance (he also claims to have been completely blindsided by rising gas prices, as if no one had ever predicted that).

http://www.time.com/ time/ business/ article/ 0,8599,1841374-2,00.html

Lutz: “Even as we face the Grim Reaper, we would still be spending money on the Volt.”

Thats commitment, so who cares whether he’s a denier or not. The threat of global warming is not gonna win this game short term - self preservation is.

http://www.mydamnchannel.com/ Harry_Shearer/ Music_Videos/ PalinBridgeToNowhere_934.aspx

Perhaps you are thinking of the plague, which swept Europe in the 1400’s and killed an estimated 75 million people. Oops, I guess that would be a counterexample

Plenty of examples such as wild-eyed guys walking the sidewalk with “The End is Neigh!” signs, fears of invasions from Mars, yep, we got those.

How about some examples of “doomsday scares” that had the backing of the vast majority of experts in the field, all major scientific organizations, and the world’s governments?

Oh, yeah, make sure those “doomsday scares” you site were also backed by solid data to prove that at one point they were well underway but failed.

You know stuff like polar ice melting, glaciers retreating, vegetation moving higher up the mountains and further toward the poles, oceans rising, spring coming earlier, animals moving to previously cooler places, ….