Posted on 04/22/2016 12:51:31 PM PDT by rxsid
Seven Earth Day predictions that failed spectacularly
Anthony Watts / 2 hours ago April 22, 2016
Never Trust The Doom-Mongers: Earth Day Predictions That Were All Wrong
Environmentalists truly believed and predicted that the planet was doomed during the first Earth Day in 1970, unless drastic actions were taken to save it. Humanity never quite got around to that drastic action, but environmentalists still recall the first Earth Day fondly and hold many of the predictions in high regard.
So this Earth Day, The Daily Caller News Foundation takes a look at predictions made by environmentalists around the original Earth Day in 1970 to see how they’ve held up. Have any of these dire predictions come true? No, but that hasn’t stopped environmentalists from worrying. From predicting the end of civilization to classic worries about peak oil, here are seven green predictions that were just flat out wrong.
1: “Civilization Will End Within 15 or 30 Years.”
Harvard biologist Dr. George Wald warned shortly before the first Earth Day in 1970 that civilization would soon end “unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.” Three years before his projection, Wald was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
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2: “100-200 Million People Per Year Will Be Starving to Death During the Next Ten Years.”
Stanford professor Dr. Paul Ehrlich declared in April 1970 that mass starvation was imminent. His dire predictions failed to materialize as the number of people living in poverty has significantly declined and the amount of food per person has steadily increased, despite population growth. The world’s Gross Domestic Product per person has immeasurably increased despite increases in population.
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3: “Population Will Inevitably and Completely Outstrip Whatever Small Increases in Food Supplies We Make.”
Paul Ehrlich also made the above claim in 1970, shortly before an agricultural revolution that caused the world’s food supply to rapidly increase. Ehrlich has consistently failed to revise his predictions when confronted with the fact that they did not occur, stating in 2009 that “perhaps the most serious flaw in The Bomb was that it was much too optimistic about the future.”
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4: “Demographers Agree Almost Unanimously … Thirty Years From Now, the Entire World … Will Be in Famine.”
Environmentalists in 1970 truly believed in a scientific consensus predicting global famine due to population growth in the developing world, especially in India. “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,” Peter Gunter, a professor at North Texas State University, said in a 1970 issue of The Living Wilderness.”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.”
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5: “In A Decade, Urban Dwellers Will Have to Wear Gas Masks to Survive Air Pollution.”
Life magazine stated in January 1970 that scientist had “solid experimental and theoretical evidence” to believe that “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.”
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6: “Childbearing [Will Be] A Punishable Crime Against Society, Unless the Parents Hold a Government License.”
David Brower, the first executive director of The Sierra Club made the above claim and went on to say that “[a]ll potential parents [should be] required to use contraceptive chemicals, the government issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for childbearing.” Brower was also essential in founding Friends of the Earth and the League Of Conservation Voters and much of the modern environmental movement.
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7: “By the Year 2000 … There Won’t Be Any More Crude Oil.”
On Earth Day in 1970 ecologist Kenneth Watt famously predicted that the world would run out of oil saying, “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.’”
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Full article: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/04/22/seven-earth-day-predictions-that-failed-spectacularly/
The only thing that went away regarding oil is “driving up to the pump and saying fill’ er buddy”. Unless of course you live in Oregon...
“Unless of course you live in Oregon...”
Yep, and every time I go there I forget...
Yep, Oregon and also New Jersey, I believe, don’t allow self service gas stations.
Yep that’s an outdated concept for most of us, the idea that we pull in a gas station and somebody pumps gas for you.
Do they clean your windshield too?
I live in Washington and it’s irritating as hell getting gas in Oregon, except on my motorcycle. They changed the law that allows the rider to fill up their own bikes.
Name any of the Earth Day predictions that DID come true! Environ-mentalists wrote the book on hyperbole.
Yes, even check the oil if you ask them, but they usually have only one harried guy running from one car to the other, so you’ll be there a while.
I ran into that crap in 1979 and have never forgotten and lived up to the promise that Oregon didn’t need my presence.
Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon proves that even accidental pollution on a large scale is NOTHING to the oceans. Self-cleaned with no lingering ill effects. So, on to the next crusade.
“solid experimental and theoretical evidence”
Isn’t this an oxymoron? Experimental and theoretical = no solid evidence.
No doubt, all of the above we’re settled science
Meanwhile, from the camp of the Erudite Professional Liars:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/why-should-people-trust-what-scientists-tell-them/
(And notice no more comments allowed on the SA site.)
HAPPY EARTH DAY, kids!
Better use an extra long stick to cook those marshmallows and weenies! No dry sticks either, they might catch on fire. Better rip a small branch off a living tree then sharpen the end. Green wood won't catch on fire and ruin your marshmallow.
Nothin' like food cooked outdoors over an open fire!
And both of those were really tiny spills...compared to what Sadam Hussein pumped into the Persian Gulf.
earth day = happy lennin’s birthday.
If there aren't other cars waiting to be fueled, yes.
(Singing, tune of The Christmas Song)
Chipmunks roasting on an open fire...
That's a lot of dead dinosaurs.
Environmentalists are either Communists in disguise or useful idiots to the former.
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