JaggedEdge...

Eugenics: belief in it results in a genocidal nightmare.

Global warming: belief in it results in a cleaner environment. Even if you don't believe that humans are responsible for the shift, what's wrong with doing our best to improve matters? What harm can it do? As for the DDT, it softened the shells of birds' eggs to a dangerous degree, and is generally abhorrent for the world's species. Sometimes there is a bigger picture than humans and their petty striving.

There will always be people who claim that the whole concept is bullshit--for much the same reasons, I believe, that evolution is still called a "theory" and officials refrain from laughing in the face of intelligent design. (As a side note, I propose a compromise that God made the first organism and Darwinism took it from there. Would end a lot of ridiculous debate).

I think it to be an egregious problem that most people seem to pick an ideology (in your case libertarianism) and then stubbornly interpret absolutely everything along those lines. I too resent paternalistic government and checks to freedom...typically. I believe your average citizen to be just too fucking stupid to be allowed to decide something as momentous as the earth's future. As somebody pointed out, when the will of the people leads to the consumption of the cheapest and most heavily advertised goods (with no regard for environmental or ethical standards of the production of said goods), someone needs to intervene. It's like an intervention for alcoholism...nothing inherently wrong with drinking, but it's time to speak up when they start guzzling vodka all day.