Hey all, new here, and I've been curious about this for a while.

You know how in every decade, there's faulty scientific reports, or widespread rumors that become common knowledge? Like vaccines causing autism in the 90s, AIDS can be spread through saliva and touch in the 80s, TV can literally rot your brain/ smoking isn't THAT bad in the 70s - what do you think will be the 2000s equivalents of these things?

I'd personally put forth the fear over running out of oil. It seemed right up until the end of the 00's people were nervous about oil running out, and there were multiple dystopic/apocalyptic movies and games that based their premises on the world running out of it. I remember it always seemed as though it was right around the corner, I sometimes lost sleep over it, then the price of fuel went way, way up.

Then all of a sudden, it seemed to be over. Prices came down, fracking became more widespread, and we all seemed to realize there's still a few decades of oil left. Nobody seems to worry about it anymore.

What do you guys think? Any other examples?

Oh, I thought that one too. I actually remember seeing it explicitly written in a handout my Chemistry teacher gave, that oil was going to run out in 2025 or so.  ;D

I used to think hydrogen powered cars would be a thing.  :-X

The "vaccines causing autism" rumor was more of a 2010s thing, since having autism back in the 90s and 2000s were quite rare compared to now. Even as an autistic person, I basically see Autism Speaks everywhere since the early 2010s, even though the organization has never truly supported people with autism. Aside from that, I think the economy was the most out of all things people worried about in the 2000s. I don't even think the recession hurt a lot of people, since my family was still working and never got any laid offs.

Oh, I thought that one too. I actually remember seeing it explicitly written in a handout my Chemistry teacher gave, that oil was going to run out in 2025 or so.  ;D

I used to think hydrogen powered cars would be a thing.  :-X


Oh, I almost completely forgot about the hydrogen powered hopes for the future, definitely didn't pan out very well  ;D

On that topic, who remembers the 2000s energy crisis? It wasn't as bad as the one in the '70s, but I remember gas going up to, like $4.00 a gallon here, and there actually being gas lines in the summer of 2008.

The "vaccines causing autism" rumor was more of a 2010s thing, since having autism back in the 90s and 2000s were quite rare compared to now. Even as an autistic person, I basically see Autism Speaks everywhere since the early 2010s, even though the organization has never truly supported people with autism. Aside from that, I think the economy was the most out of all things people worried about in the 2000s. I don't even think the recession hurt a lot of people, since my family was still working and never got any laid offs.


The anti-vaxxers movement is weirdly loud and prominent right now, for some reason, even though the original study was actually 1998. I was born in 95, and I was actually missing a couple of vaccines until a few years ago because my mother bought into it at the time.

Still have no clue as to why it's making a weird sort of resurgence now

On that topic, who remembers the 2000s energy crisis? It wasn't as bad as the one in the '70s, but I remember gas going up to, like $4.00 a gallon here, and there actually being gas lines in the summer of 2008.


I live in the UK, and I remember the prices shooting way up overnight. They had been going up slowly, from like 0.96 when I was really young, to 1.03, then like 1.05,  when all of a sudden, it was like boom, 1.46 per litre, which is the equivalent of like $8.50 a gallon

On that topic, who remembers the 2000s energy crisis? It wasn't as bad as the one in the '70s, but I remember gas going up to, like $4.00 a gallon here, and there actually being gas lines in the summer of 2008.


I don't know how much gas was in New York during the 2000s, since I never really paid attention to gas prices at the time. I don't think any kid back then did.


The anti-vaxxers movement is weirdly loud and prominent right now, for some reason, even though the original study was actually 1998. I was born in 95, and I was actually missing a couple of vaccines until a few years ago because my mother bought into it at the time.

Still have no clue as to why it's making a weird sort of resurgence now


I think it's because autism is common to see in children. As of now, 1 in 68 children could have autistic symptoms. So most people who barely have any knowledge on autism blame it on vaccines.

The belief that the world had to drastically reduce the amount of electricity consumed by households and businesses within the short-medium term, so that the environment could be better protected. Obviously this is still a major environmental concern and it has been for several decades now, however it was something that was really a cause for concern among the general public back in the 2000s.

That is primarily how Earth Hour became popular during the Late 2000s. Even though Earth Hour still runs each year, it was something that was taken quite seriously back in the Late 2000s and it was heavily promoted on news bulletins and television stations. It was a pretty big deal back then. My Mum and I would turn off our lights for the hour between 7.30-8.30pm and most of the people in our housing estate would as well. In retrospect, the belief held at the time seems a bit far-fetched now, as the general public now consumes even more electricity, due to the introduction of iPads and the increased usage of smartphones and social media.

I live in the UK, and I remember the prices shooting way up overnight. They had been going up slowly, from like 0.96 when I was really young, to 1.03, then like 1.05,  when all of a sudden, it was like boom, 1.46 per litre, which is the equivalent of like $8.50 a gallon


Yeah, it was ridiculous. When I was young in the early and mid '90s, most gas stations were still below $1.00 in the rural U.S., like $0.94 or $0.95 cent a gallon around here, then it just spiked out of nowhere during the mid '00s, peaking at about $4.50 a gallon in some areas here, which is very high for us. I think Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq War and Middle East unrest in general, probably played the largest role.

The belief that the world had to drastically reduce the amount of electricity consumed by households and businesses within the short-medium term, so that the environment could be better protected. Obviously this is still a major environmental concern and it has been for several decades now, however it was something that was really a cause for concern among the general public back in the 2000s.

That is primarily how Earth Hour became popular during the Late 2000s. Even though Earth Hour still runs each year, it was something that was taken quite seriously back in the Late 2000s and it was heavily promoted on news bulletins and television stations. It was a pretty big deal back then. My Mum and I would turn off our lights for the hour between 7.30-8.30pm and most of the people in our housing estate would as well. In retrospect, the belief held at the time seems a bit far-fetched now, as the general public now consumes even more electricity, due to the introduction of iPads and the increased usage of smartphones and social media.


I remember back in 2008 that I was obsessed with turning off the lights during Earth Day. For about one minute, I turned every single light off in my house. It was kinda funny at the moment, even though it was the only time I contributed to something about the environment.