Drivers prefer tolls to taxes. That’s too bad.

[CtrlAltDel]

I'm pretty sure there hasn't been any actual warming for like over 17 years, which means that humans probably aren't the cause.

The seven hottest years on record are (in order): 2015, 2014, 2010, 2013, 2005, 2009, and 1998. This year, 2016, is also well on track to take the top spot.

It's barely over a degree warmer on average now than it was in 1880. That means if the average temperature in 1880 was 75 degrees then right now it is 76 degrees.

A difference of 1 degree Celsius is quite a bit. The planet is only about 6 degrees Celsius warmer now than it was at the height of the last ice age.

CO2 readings don't mean anything to me. There were around 1 billion people living on earth in 1880. There are over 7 billion now. You know what every human breathes out every second of every day? CO2. BTW only 0.039% of air is CO2. Most of our air is Nitrogen (78%) and Oxygen (20%).

The carbon used in human metabolism doesn’t have a significant impact on CO2 levels in the atmosphere. When food grows, it pulls carbon out of the air, and when people eat it, it gets put back. Also, while O2 and N2 make up the bulk of the atmosphere, their role in climate change is minimal because they are not greenhouse gases.

Not to mention all the doomsday predictions back in the 1970s that we were headed for another Ice Age.

There was some concern about global cooling in the ’70s, but even then, the bulk of scientific work on climate was related to warming.

You can debate global warming all day. Some people believe in it, some don't. If it was 100% proven it wouldn't be controversial, but obviously it's not.

It is proven as far as anything else is. There is no scientific controversy. However, for various reasons, belief or disbelief in it has become a bit of a social group identifier. That’s why people get all worked up about it, in much the same way they don’t get worked up about neutrinos.

This all I will say on the matter. We’re definitely getting a bit off the discussion of road funding.

[US 41]

Global warming is a scientific theory, not a scientific law. It hasn't been 100% proven to be true. There are many scientists out there that don't believe in global warming and many who do. If it was a law there would be absolute proof. There is not, so it is a scientific theory, just like the Big Bang is a theory.

[vdeane]

How many of those scientists that don't believe in climate change are climate scientists?  And how many more climate scientists do?  It's never 100%, but it is the dominant paradigm, and science works in paradigms (fortunately or unfortunately).

Anyways, even if something is 100% proven, some people still won't believe it.  For example, there are some people out there who believe that vaccines are a conspiracy by the Illuminati to keep people's souls enslaved by damaging the Pineal Gland, thereby preventing people from connecting with spiritual energy that would give them psychic powers (also that the decrease in disease attributed to vaccines being caused by access to potable water).

Plus any warming is not uniform.  1 degree of warming is just the global average; it can stay the same in one place, shoot up by 10 degrees in another (which is actually happening in Siberia, by the way; there's actually an anthrax epidemic up there caused by a 40 year old reindeer corpse defrosting), and decrease in a third.  Plus the increased temperature causes wind patterns to change and weather to become more volatile, so hotter summers and colder/snowier winters can BOTH happen in the same area.

Back on this topic, people actually do complain about the Thruway tolls, quite vehemently.  Some truckers even threatened to sue the state over toll money going to the Canal Corporation.

[wxfree]

Global warming is a scientific theory, not a scientific law. It hasn't been 100% proven to be true. There are many scientists out there that don't believe in global warming and many who do. If it was a law there would be absolute proof. There is not, so it is a scientific theory, just like the Big Bang is a theory.

There is no absolute certainty in science.  The difference between a theory and a law isn't that one might be true while the other is certainly true.  A hypothesis, a theory, and a law are all really the same thing: a proposed explanation.  The difference is that a hypothesis is more specific and has less certainty, while a theory is more general and has more certainty, and a law is very general, describing a very fundamental and universal truth, and has the highest degree of certainty.

The Theory of Relativity is about as proven as any science can be, but it is not a law.  Laws are generally very basic, such as the laws of motion and of gravity, because with that simplicity you can have a high degree of certainty not only that it's true, but that it's a fundamental building block of nature.  The Law of Universal Gravitation, in spite of being a law, is not, in fact 100% true.  Relativity is Einstein's new theory of gravity.  It also is proven but does not appear to be completely correct.  Science isn't about absolute truth; it's about the state of understanding of the day and advancing that state tomorrow.  Nothing we know is completely true because we don't know everything.

Global warming is much too small a phenomenon to be a law of nature, no matter how well it's proven or how true it is.  We need to understand science for what it actually does and what it actually means, and not use our misunderstanding to justify rejection of scientific facts we don't want to be true.  (Note that "scientific facts" does not mean absolutely true facts, but it refers to an explanation reflecting the state of understanding at the time.)  I'm not a scientist and not qualified to explain the process is complete detail, but I understand it well enough to recognize that it's frequently misunderstood.

[kalvado]

Back on this topic, people actually do complain about the Thruway tolls, quite vehemently.  Some truckers even threatened to sue the state over toll money going to the Canal Corporation.

I guess it depends on how important that toll for the bottom line. For me EZpass is a small expense, and actually I would gladly pay $100-200/year extra for better roads (assuming $0.00 goes towards new roundabouts).
My EZpass bill for last week was about $25 (that was quite high for me, though). I probably spent more than that on soda along the way. Do I really care?.. Not so much. But I can see truckers being significantly impacted by those expenses.
As far as I understand, Thruway commuter plans in upstate are more or less reasonable. And I am not talking NYC bridges and tunnels, those are a different story.
Honestly speaking, only thing that makes me personally uncomfortable with Thruway toll is the fact that I pay twice: both gas tax AND toll. But again,  that is not enough to complain.

[SP Cook]

The problem, of course, is that you just cannot trust that a toll is going to result in "better roads". 

Toll authorities, pretty much nationwide, are known for misappropriation of toll money for things unrelated to road maintance.  When you have a big pot of money and no oversight, since tolls usually pass through without legislative appropriation, it is a receipe for waste.