Luckily, we haven't run out of oil, but we have exhausted our supply of 70s fashion.
Ignore them. They’ll be wrong. We’re confident in saying that because they’ve always been wrong. And always will be.
Need proof? Here are some of the hilarious, spectacularly wrong predictions made on the occasion of Earth Day 1970.
“We have about five more years at the outside to do something.”
• Kenneth Watt, ecologist
“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
• George Wald, Harvard Biologist
“We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.”
• Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist
“Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.”
• New York Times editorial, the day after the first Earth Day
“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
“By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.”
• Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day
“Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
• Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University
“Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….”
• Life Magazine, January 1970
“At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it’s only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
Stanford's Paul Ehrlich announces that the sky is falling.
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
“We are prospecting for the very last of our resources and using up the nonrenewable things many times faster than we are finding new ones.”
• Martin Litton, Sierra Club director
“By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate…that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say, `I am very sorry, there isn’t any.’”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
“Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”
• Sen. Gaylord Nelson
“The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
Keep these predictions in mind when you hear the same predictions made today. They’ve been making the same predictions for 39 years. And they’re going to continue making them until…well…forever.
Here we are, 39 years later and the economy sucks, but the ecology’s fine. In fact this planet is doing a lot better than the planet on which those green lunatics live.
You’ll also enjoy (or hate) our article, 25 Global Warming Debunking Videos Al Gore Doesn’t Want You To See.
Source: Reason.com
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I can’t help but notice that you discount all my well reasoned and logical arguments by attacking one of many sources. Classic evasion tactic.
In fact, it seems that the favorite argument here is to attribute things to the opponent that they do not espouse at all, then attacking that attribute.
So if strawmen, tinfoil, and evasion are all you people have to offer, my work here is done.
Opps – repeated myself .. maybe I ought to make it three times..
“Just that comment makes you sound very young – kids worry about being on the fringe – being out-standing in some way. – adults considered a mark of honor.”
Note to self: cut and paste is a wonderful tool – it can be over-used.
More talking points from the fringe:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8008473.stm
Endif, please leave, it seems as though you are completely unable to comprehend what true research material is… Wikipedia, lol… (Oh, btw, wikipedia can be edited by basically anyone, matter of fact, I just looked up star wars, and said captain Picard was the captain of the Millenium Falcon… HAHAHA)
I have personally become jaded by my friends, who continue to deny logic, and reason, and spout psycho-babble when discussing global warming. A sign of the times, I suppose.
Also, so you know, Earth Hour (I prolly don’t have to explain this to you, but I will for clarification’s sake; when everyone in the world is supposed to shut off all their power for one hour, to cut “billions” of pounds of C02 from the environment) actually causes MORE CO2 to be produced, because of the start up surge of power neccassary to return power to homes and businesses. I know, my father works for the environmental department for Consol Energy, here in PA. In that one hour, many power plants shut down, to stop producing unneeded energy (Oh, and btw, the white clouds you see coming from American smokestacks is 99.734% STEAM!!!), when power is supposed to be turned on, the power needed causes all those powerplants to turn back on, which is (by Consol Power’s own figures) ~900% dirtier than running constantly.
So there, stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it (or don’t if you want to help the environment out).
Endif’s sources are worth looking up. They are all self referencing. BBC says Al Gore says, and Al Gore says Science mag says, which reports what logical science says which endorses what wikipedia says which reports what all the others say who….
Endif is a typical diversionist blogger. The dead giveaway of which is a pretence at amusement of the contributers. Check it out. Jim’s Law.
Jim, I’ll try to look at all endif’s references Monday but I have a ’seen it all’ attitude at this time. Its only been 39+ years I’ve been reading about climate change/environment. I suppose I must have a closed mind. I like your law, though.
John, we all know wikipedia is only as good as its contributors – and anything that is in the least bit controversial is more than likely slanted one way or other- encyclopedia wars, indeed.. (great place to begin but don’t stake your life or money on its accuracy.) I don’t go in for big symbolic actions (turning lights off a whole hour? LOL), in the end it means nothing & people go back and do same old.
Do your duties each and every day of your life is more my style.
Gee, I didn’t know about Picard & the Millennium falcon, he gets around a lot – must have been his first command. God-awfullest Starship Captain, ever. I like Captain John Sheridan, myself.
And, Endif – you are leaving us? I am so very saddened. I hope you will someday realize that thinking & believing what the majority does isn’t always wise. Being Fringe means you stand alone as an individual. Calling me fringe is actually a very great compliment. The Earth and its systems are, I believe, still too complex for us to grasp with an certainty. Below is my parting shot:
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
Giordano Bruno
Yes, KathyMary, I was talking about water; it was a trick my high school chemistry teacher played on her students. The ruse was that the name dihydrogen monoxide – along with a slew of factual information on water’s catastrophic nature – would evoke hatred toward water. Of the thirty-one students, myself and three others saw through the guise; unfortunately, I am sure the other twenty-seven students went on to vote for MotUS.
I don’t suppose the folks on the Titanic were very fond of the solid version of dihydrogen monoxide the night of April 14th., 1912, either, Boreas.
Is anyone here wondering how CO2 is going to be controlled by the government?
– plants love it, humans exhale it, CO2, it’s all natural.
Breathing limitations perhaps. The FDA has already started to do what they can to control breathing by outlawing chlorofluorocarbon albuterol inhalers for asthmatics. The FDA’s reason for outlawing it was to eliminate the (negligible) effect CFC’s had on the ozone layer – a debate which I thought had been settled back in the 90s. Of course, all asthmatics had to switch to hydrofluoroalkane inhalers; these (ungodly expensive) HFA inhalers were subsequently outlawed by the Kyoto Treaty for contributing to man-made global warming.
I know that I breathe less now that I have to use these woefully inefficient HFA inhalers, so that is a start, do you not think so? Perhaps we will all have to go get human emissions tests from state-authorized inspection stations; or, more likely, we will just have nanomachines in our blood monitoring our carbon dioxide and methane output and kill us if we exceed the globally-allowed levels.
Not to worry though, this new flu strain – which has yet to mutate into its first-wave strain – will kill off about 25-30% of the world’s population after all three waves; that has got to be a lot less carbon outputs.
Wouldn’t that mean that opera and swimming stars would have to pay an extra breathing tax, Boreas?
I never heard about the inhaler controversy. Sorry to hear about your illness/disability/very annoying problem- I helped a woman in my neighborhood when she had an asthma attack (called 911, etc.) I think I was as terrified as she was when she couldn’t breathe – can’t be easy to live with. I’ll stick with sore joints, thank you very much ! (-:
I asked my husband about the mortality ratio/rate(?).. 1000/81 : 8.1%
Why is this era starting to remind me of episodes of the Middle Ages:
Doomsday cults, end-time prophecies becoming shriller.
Islam/the West in conflict
Extreme world views exaggerated -preachers whipping up fears (I mean Media, they are secular preachers.)
Centralization of political power in the few.
Breakdown of Traditional social structures – social unrest.
Now : Plague and threat of plague.
Did anyone see the four horsemen ride by? Darn.
Don’t say three waves, please don’t, Boreas – I’ve read about the Black Death (at least, it isn’t spread by fleas!) and the 1918 Flu pandemic, etc. Can you imagine what a real. long lasting epidemic would do the USA ? – we are already going through a lot. Read About the fall of the Roman Empire or Athens. It wasn’t one problem that ended them it was everything going wrong at once -pandemics, epidemics,external enemies, wars, social unrest,financial troubles .. sound familiar?
And we now have a government that just loves centralizing power.
(oh, read the book “Exodus to Arthur ” by Mike Baillie if you want a new slant on the fall of the Roman Empire – warning the scientific chapters will give you a headache.)
I am sure that singers and athletes would have to pay for carbon offsets; they will have to buy from Al Gore, of course.
Yeah, asthma is not a fun thing, but after several dozen attacks throughout the years, I no longer get phased by it.
The whole flu problem could be nipped in the bud right now if the plans that we put in place back in 2002 – these are the same plans the press secretary would have you believe were put in place by Obama as a US Senator which I find to be fairly strange seeing as how he was only a senator for two years and campaigning for the majority of that – were activated. If we sealed all borders and only allowed secure transportation through, then we’d be able to quarantine the sources. California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas are going to be the hardest hit by it if the troops on the border are not given the orders to detain or kill border violators.
Hello Endiff,
I know a tiny little bit about doing research in science. I know that all sources outside Peer-Review articles are considered off limits for presentation of evidence…in particular, the most heinous, Wikipedia.
The sources you have chosen above are only acceptable for high school and junior college level writing at best. Perhaps your audience here would pay more mind to your sources if you were to stick to academia. No?
Regards,
I have found, Boreas, over the years that I have become accustomed to all kinds of physical pains and aches and endured despite them. We humans are (nearly) infinitely resilient.
I am afraid, at least for now, that President Obama is the savior and fount of all that is good and beneficial and all good ideas were unknown before his miraculous rising from senator to President. (why do I always feel like I am watching 44BC, American style?)
– Can you imagine the uproar of our liberal brothers and sisters if the borders were really closed and violators were shot ? They would claim it was racism, instead of good, even common, sense. I am afraid, again, that truth and wisdom will play second fiddle to emotionalism and political correctness.. this time, with deadly results for many if this is the true beginning of a pandemic.
(as it seems to be)
Did you ever read about what finally destroyed the intellectual/emotional grip of the Roman Catholic Church during the plague? It was that it was proven, in ways that could not be doubted, that the church hierarchy was neither specially blessed nor impervious to the Black Death .. and, also, that many in the church saved their own skin(s) and ignored the needs of their spiritual charges.
I wonder if we will be talking about way the mass media/political class handles this emergency in the future?
One of the great problems of our era is that survival is now longer truly understood as a motivation. — political correctness may be showing us its ugly underskirts in the near future just as It has done with the War on Terror that is now no longer the war on terror..
Quarantine always should be the first response. Yes, help the victims but don’t let it spread and bring down thousands, even millions.
I suspect we will be hit rather hard here in my own state of Washington, also.
Thank you, to whomever wrote this article.
39 years later, the oral gaiarrhea continues, and the IQ 85 average American still believes it.
Watch out for watermelons (green on the outside, red on the inside). They are more dangerous than islamic terrorists, because they are more numerous and ill-informed.
The adults are in charge now.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/04/27/2009-04-27_plane_stupid_mayor_bloomberg_outraged_over_military_photoop_involving_lowflying_.html
The list is adding up, Craig – isn’t it I can also imagine the absolute terror of the poor New Yorkers. The panic, people worried about each other… etc, etc. Just mean and thoughtless.
I am not sure whether the opposites/contraries we are watching manifest in this administration is adults/children or professionals/amateurs. My thought – a bit of both.
It’s all about freedom. The statists want to control every aspect of our lives. Why? They are the smartest and most compassionate. Don’t believe me, just go ask one. Seriously, it is about freedom and elitism. Somehow the uber-rich can travel and burn gobs of carbon based fuels (please stop calling it fossil fuel- their is only consensus in the west on that) Cheap oil is freedom for poor people, freedom of mobility, to heat one’s homes. I think the market should dictate the new energy sources. Wind and solar are not cost efficient or reliable at all, requiring backup sources. I would put it out there that the introduction of oil fuels helped to clean up the environment. No more streets full of horse manure and flies. Less contaminated water, etc. And reliable transportation.
We need to follow truth where ever it leads, not just where it is convenient.
Wes – If you ever get a chance read about the cholera epidemic of 1854 – how polluted London really was in that era – one of the most advanced cities of its time wasn’t much more than a cess pool. There were actually professional boaters who sailed the Thames picking up dead bodies. The Thames stank. Prince Albert died of Cholera.
For most of human history:
Flies landed in human and animal waste in the streets and then on fresh food, people didn’t know that washing food (fresh, clean, running water was hard to come by as it was !) and hands is instrumental in preventing the spread of disease — rats (eating manure, dead cats, dogs and rats, etc,) and Fleas on the rats were every day nuisances our cities. If the rats died human blood tasted just as sweet. Everyone from the King down to the humblest servant had fleas and flea bites, constantly, esp. during the hot months. Fleas spread the plague, bit people & inhabit houses & were so ubiquitous as to unremarkable. Our cities stank. Our clothes stank. We stank. Bathing was rare, clean clothes, rarer. From 1347-48 on, Europe got hit with waves of the Black Plague every few years ,or, at least once a generation. Read a book about the year 1666 in London. It was the Fleas.
Think about washing clothes without running water and a machine. Think about weaving your own cloth by hand, sewing by hand.. how many suits would you own unless you were the king?
Think about the poorer classes that didn’t have servants.
NO central Heating anywhere – smoky homes and castles, the modern fire place is a medieval invention.. The king freezes right along with his servants some winters. People go hungry to one degree or other every year in January – April. The feasting we do in Nov -December is actually an echo of those times.
There were no real sewers in the modern sense.. human waste is emptied out the windows in the morning (open sewers). Most of what I am talking about is about ALL human history, all human cities with few exceptions.
Things slowly improved in the 1800s (that cholera epidemic was a turning point so was the invention of modern plumbing, sewage control, large water control projects pumping water into cities, water on tap,etc.).
( I am just using certain cities and eras as examples you can look up. )
Before nearly our era (my mom’s generation, lets say, she was born 1913) Old was your 50th. year, and rare too. It still is rare in a lot of the world. The majority died a lot younger.
Not even Doctors knew to clean their hands before touching open wounds well into the 19th. century. (read about book about the Civil War USA and infection.)
Getting food to the cities was very difficult. (no fuel or good roads, no trains) A bad growing season assured high mortality almost instantly. Keeping food safe, clean and stored was nearly impossible for more than a few months – no canning, no transportation, no giant farms producing massive amounts of good food that could be stored for several years and kept safe from, yep, the rats. No chemicals preserving food. Herbs and Spices freshen up and make spoiling food edible, but do little to preserve it. But only a few can afford such luxuries. That is why salt & pepper were so valuable.
There was no electricity, no food preservation and everyone eats food that is already carrying diseases, impurities and the eggs/larva of flies(soon to be maggots) .. up to the beginning of the 20th. century the richest king was less fortunate, clean, well-fed and healthy than the poorest American of Today. (excluding street people.)
Most people were NOT fortunate enough to escape the place they were born, Most lived within about oh, 10 miles of their birthplace in their whole lives. (how far can you walk in day?) The rich traveled, but it wasn’t easy. Even in the centuries we consider mostly civilized (1700 in England,lets say) highway men and pirates on the seas were still very real terrors..Most people didn’t go to school, or read. My grandmother, in a small town in Italia, never read or wrote a word in her entire life! (why bother to read when you are just going to have to read by candle light, anyway?)
Civilization was built on human and animal labor, some water, some wind power, but little else.
Of course it is about elitism – that, and idealism of the worse kind. Our version of aristocracy – the learned classes– think how nice it would be if there fewer of the masses (us serfs) and their lives were nice and bucolic like everything was before the gas engine and cars, etc. Lets regress! If you ever get a chance watch “Smug Alert” an episode of South Park… it is about rich people feeling smug and self satisfied. VERY FUNNY
People have just have forgotten how bad, bad really was and what life was like before fuel, modern transportation, food storage, sewage control, plumbing and electricity.
I’ve drawn this detailed picture to help wake people up, I hope.
Most fictional accounts of the past can’t possibly give us an Idea what life before 1800-2000 was really like!
Most of us wouldn’t last a day. Our immune systems are way too vulnerable.
Kathymary,
you are so right.
Thanks Wes – I debated writing such a long piece, but you can’t describe what the past was like in a few words. (I BLUSH!)
Last, last words – Before people dismantle modern civilization piece by piece someone better tell them the hell that awaits them. Sometimes civilization falls, that is a tragedy. No Civilization has purposely began to dismantled itself.
When the rich get stupid the poor are always the first to suffer.
KathyMary,
Excellent piece.
May I use it elsewhere?
Stephen
I remember being in my Science class in 1971 when our Biology instructor said “the planet will, for the most part, die within the next 25 year”. Most of us believed him and I remember becoming depressed, wondering what was the point of remaining in school, etc. A lot of my friends felt the same way.
Remeber when they were claiming that polution would be so bad we would need to wear gas masks to go outside or that our cities would be under giant domes and the planet would become a lifeless rock in space way back in the 70s and i never happened and still they blabber this doomsday poppycock bull twaddle
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