Posted on 04/27/2003 2:24:26 AM PDT by PeaceBeWithYou
Since the very first Earth Day, scare stories have been exaggerated
WASHINGTON -"Between 1980 and 1989, some 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, will perish from starvation ... civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind."
These are actual predictions by environmentalists celebrating the first Earth Day -- April 22, 1970.
They were wrong. Sixty-five million Americans haven't starved to death. Food production has handily outpaced population growth. And food today is cheaper and more abundant than ever before.
Civilization has not ended.
Undaunted, the environmental left continues to sound the alarm. The supposed threat now is dirty air, the extinction of plants and animals and, to put it bluntly, President Bush, who is vilified for opposing ratification of the Kyoto global warming treaty, among other supposed sins.
Like the aforementioned environmentalist claims of 1970, many modern-day environmental scare stories are flawed.
Sierra Club officials, for instance, claim millions of Americans breathe dirty air and that smog causes 6 million asthma attacks each summer.
Incidences of asthma have risen, but air pollution levels have gone down. Scientists have found that asthma is largely related to genetics.
Since 1970, the six principal air pollutants tracked nationally have been cut by 25 percent. During that time, our gross domestic product has increased 161 percent while energy consumption increased 42 percent. Energy consumption per dollar of GDP has declined at an average rate of 1.7 percent during the last 25 years.
This means that America's success in combating air pollution since the first Earth Day is far, far greater than it seems at first glance.
Environmentalists tout the necessity of protecting plants and animals through vigorous enforcement of the Endangered Species Act. Preserving species is a noble goal, but this act isn't doing the job.
Of the 1,254 species listed as endangered since the act was enacted in 1973, only 33 have been taken off the list. Twelve of the 33 were removed due to erroneous population counts or data entry errors, so less than 1 percent were recovered over the last 30 years.
Meanwhile, it's estimated that enforcement costs consumers and taxpayers more than $1 billion a year in litigation, lost profits, lost jobs and rising business and governmental operational costs.
The environmental left fervently supports the Kyoto treaty, an international agreement designed to cut carbon dioxide emissions to slow the global warming most environmentalists say is taking place.
If the environmentalists are right about the existence and cause of global warming, they have much to answer for, as there is more air than substance to be found in Kyoto. The treaty would have little real impact on climate change. If it is implemented and works exactly as the environmentalists predict, it would avert only 0.06 degrees Celsius of global warming by 2050.
Kyoto would, however, have a devastating effect on the American economy. The federal Energy Information Administration has estimated that, if implemented, the Kyoto Protocol would raise gas prices 14 to 66 cents a gallon by 2010, electricity prices by 20 to 86 percent and cost the U.S. economy $400 billion per year.
Independent studies say it also would force many into unemployment, with minorities being particularly hard-hit: 864,000 blacks and 511,000 Hispanics would lose their jobs.
As in 1970, today's environmental movement relies on wild-eyed doom-and-gloom predictions to shock people into supporting what too often is a radical agenda unsupported by sound science. The movement fails to recognize accomplishments that have been made and supports programs that cost billions -- yet don't perform as advertised in solving environmental problems.
Those of us who truly believe the environment is important owe it to the cause to review the hard science behind environmentalist claims and to consider if the environmentalists' proposed solutions would actually work.
We also owe it to our countrymen -- particularly those who are economically disadvantaged -- to take into the account the often multibillion dollar price tags of environmental programs, and make certain that the poorest among us are not bearing a disproportionate share of the costs.
We do neither our environment nor our country a service if we celebrate Earth Day by believing every outrageous claim we hear.
Christopher Burger is program director at the National Center for Public Policy Research, 777 N. Capitol St. NE, Suite 803, Washington, DC 20002. E-mail: cburger@nationalcenter.org.
All they have is Fear, Uncertainty, and Deception, which are easily defeated by the truth.
Enjoy, and use these failed Doom and Gloom predictions to defeat the FUD. Add more to the thread if you have them.
Here's an awful prediction: This next summer will be the worst fire season ever and the enviros are to blame. Say goodbye to huge tracts of forest in Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and California. Down with the Sierra Club and envirowackos!
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