""Before humans burned the first coal to fire the first steam engine, the planet was warmer than this and had much higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.Both went back down."

Yes. That's true and it doesn't in any way mean that it is at all safe for humans to jack up co2 levels in such a short period of time. All of the available evidence from the people who discovered those things in the first place suggests that this is a massive gamble we are taking with bad odds and everything we hold dear is at stake.

""People twice your age lived through the end-of-the-world predictions of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. But here we are, more technologically advanced than ever (for better or worse). But this time it's different! We have science!""

That's exactly right. Climate scientists aren't some kooks looking for clues to Armageddon in the bible or hearing voices. Global warming is happening. It's measurable. We know exactly whats causing it and we have very good reason to believe its dangerous to society and ecosystems. This has fuck all to do with doomsday cults. Don't look up is a perfect metaphor. If 97% of astrophysicists agreed that a meteor is on a collision course for the earth you wouldn't complain that you heard similar things from Jim Jones and you don't want to waste your tax dollars to divert some imaginary asteroid. For some reason with climate its socially acceptable to hold such an idiotic view.

""Science is a process carried out by people; people like John Cook, Michael Mann, etc, well-known frauds who were nonetheless widely touted by top journalists at outlets like the NYT and top politicians like Barack Obama.""

The findings of both Mann and Cook have been independently verified and expanded upon by a variety of scientific studies following separate lines of inquiry. As in following different lines of evidence using different methodologies. You are a partisan and the partisan media outlets have maligned these guys, but their work stands up. I'm sure theres a conspiracy you can conjure to explain this though.

""We see a constant stream of articles here on HN, highly upvoted, even, decrying the corruption in the peer review process, the research grant process, and confirmed by commenters telling tales of their time in the PhD research world.""

There are a number of different problems in academia and the peer review process. None of them have cast doubt on the consensus findings of the field of climatology. Actually one of the problems is predatory journals who accept anything for a fee and that's more really only a problem for climate contrarian scientists since that's the only kind of journal where they can pass "peer review" most of the time.

""These scientists were brought up in the same institutions that brought us COVID lockdowns, don't-mask--now-mask--nevermind-don't-mask, redefined vaccines-that-aren't-what-vaccines-used-to-be-defined-as, etc. And the media touts them just the same.""

Jesus next thing you're going to tell me to trust Q

""We see that this whole planet of humans has been kept in a state of panic for two years about COVID, because there exist entities who want to increase their power, and the way to transfer power is to convince people that it's necessary for their own good.""

They aren't transferring power. They're expending it. None of the covid measures has made it easier for one party to win an election or harder for the other. Biden hasn't been granted emergency authority to be president for life. No they've implemented measures to try to keep people safe and the backlash from it seems to make it less likely they stay in power. Not more. The whole narrative here is just self serving political hackery.

""But, no, of course, there couldn't be any similarity between these two issues behind the scenes. After all, it's scientific consensus! Which has always been a reliable indicator of objective truth, and is one of the cornerstones of the scientific process!""

There is a similarity, but it isn't behind the scenes. It's right here in these comments. Your narrative. That's what's similar. Conservatives need an enemy to rally the troops and that enemy is mostly democrats and anything they advocate for. Especially if opposing that thing happens to be in the best interests of coporate backers of the republican party. Just claim it's all a conspiracy to give the government power and the rank and file will eat it up. Good governance be damned. Future be damned.

""What's that idea, the Gell-Mann amnesia effect? Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.""

No it's fool me once shame on you, fool me, we won't get fooled again

""If I weren't such a staunch advocate of free speech, I'd say that it ought to be criminal, how people have been convinced to live a life of fear, to think that there's no point to having a family, working toward the future, etc. How much suffering has been caused by these lies. It's simply evil.""

What's evil is downplaying actual dangers as lies and subjecting society to things like global warming and deadly diseases because you've come to associate these things with liberals. All the while banning books and passing anti 1st amendment, anti education laws under the guise of banning CRT in schools.

""Somewhere there must be a book that catalogues the dire, end-of-the-world predictions made by humans throughout the millennia. I'd implore you to find it, read it, be at ease, and live your life to the fullest while you have the health and means to do so. ""

Climate science is science. It is not tainted by the false predictions of con men and cult leaders. That doesn't work that way.