Below an interesting list from the site Cape Diem (
https://www.aei.org/publication/50-years-of-failed-doomsday-eco-pocalyptic-predictions-the-so-called-experts-are-0-41/
) with 50 examples of how environmentalists time and again have predicted a
Doomsday that never came.
That's worth thinking of when media day after day wants us to believe that
The End is Nigh! It could have something to do with that - if we take Sweden -
4/5ths of the reporters sympathise with the left-wing political parties,
according to a study from Gothenburg University. Media leaning is likely
similar elsewhere, since people behind a keyboard or in front of a camera
imagine they Know Better and suddenly think they have more Ethos.
To claim that a liberal economic system is taking us to Untergang der Erde,
is crucial for any likelihood to make people buy the concept that we must be
governed from the top under strict control by politicians to stop the imagined
disasters. Some hotheads even seriously suggests that dictatorship is necessary.
After the list I'll detail how environmentalism is wrong. First about the
list:
"More than merely spotlighting the failed predictions, this collection shows
that the makers of failed apocalyptic predictions often are individuals holding
respected positions in government and science. While such predictions have been
and continue to be enthusiastically reported by a media eager for sensational
headlines, the failures are typically not revisited."
1. 1967: Dire Famine Forecast By 1975
https://www.newspapers.com/image/9818993/?terms=paul%2Behrlich%2Bblue%2Bsteam
2. 1969: Everyone Will Disappear In a Cloud Of Blue Steam By 1989 (1969)
https://www.nytimes.com/1969/08/10/archives/foe-of-pollution-sees-lack-of-time-asserts-environmental-ills.html
3. 1970: Ice Age By 2000
https://www.newspapers.com/image/435402308/
4. 1970: America Subject to Water Rationing By 1974 and Food Rationing By 1980
https://www.newspapers.com/image/934139/?terms=paul%2Behrlich%2Bblue%2Bsmoke
5. 1971: New Ice Age Coming By 2020 or 2030
https://web.archive.org/web/20160805020812/http:/pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/doc/148085303.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=html+%2C+&author=By+Victor+Cohn%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7CWashington+Post+Staff+Writer&pub=The+Washington+Post%2C+Times+Herald++%281959-1973%29&desc=U.S.+Scientist+Sees+New+Ice+Age+Coming&pqatl=top_retrieves
6. 1972: New Ice Age By 2070
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/outreach/CDPW40/CD&PW_reeves_denver.pdf
7. 1974: Space Satellites Show New Ice Age Coming Fast
https://www.newspapers.com/image/259696938/?terms=new%2Bice%2Bage
8. 1974: Another Ice Age?
http://web.archive.org/web/20060812025725/http:/time-proxy.yaga.com/time/archive/printout/0,23657,944914,00.html
9. 1974: Ozone Depletion a ‘Great Peril to Life
https://www.newspapers.com/image/69651456/?terms=ozon%2Bdepletion
data: https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/meteorology/annual_data.html
graph: https://ourworldindata.org/ozone-layer
10. 1976: Scientific Consensus Planet Cooling, Famines imminent
https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/18/archives/the-genesis-strategy-a-chilling-prospect.html
11. 1980: Acid Rain Kills Life In Lakes (additional link)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/353862247/?terms=%22acid%2Brain%22%2Band%2Bkill%2Bbefore
12. 1978: No End in Sight to 30-Year Cooling Trend
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1978/01/05/issue.html
https://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/
13. 1988: Regional Droughts (that never happened) in 1990s
https://realclimatescience.com/2019/05/hansen-got-everything-wrong-alarmists-claim-victory/
14. 1988: Temperatures in DC Will Hit Record Highs
https://realclimatescience.com/2019/05/hansen-got-everything-wrong-alarmists-claim-victory/
15. 1988: Maldive Islands will Be Underwater by 2018 (they’re not)
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/102074798
16. 1989: Rising Sea Levels will Obliterate Nations if Nothing Done by 2000
https://www.newspapers.com/image/247922164/?terms=global%2Bwarming%2Bnoel%2Bbrown
17. 1989: New York City’s West Side Highway Underwater by 2019 (it’s not)
https://wayback.archive.org/web/20110202162233/https:/www.salon.com/books/int/2001/10/23/weather/
18. 2000: Children Won’t Know what Snow Is
https://web.archive.org/web/20150912124604/http:/www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html
19. 2002: Famine In 10 Years If We Don’t Give Up Eating Fish, Meat, and Dairy
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2004/feb/22/usnews.theobserver
20. 2004: Britain will Be Siberia by 2024
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2004/feb/22/usnews.theobserver
21. 2008: Arctic will Be Ice Free by 2018
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1988&dat=20080624&id=7mgiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7qkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5563,4123490
22. 2008: Climate Genius Al Gore Predicts Ice-Free Arctic by 2013
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/12/16/ten-years-ago-algore-predicted-the-north-polar-ice-cap-would-be-gone-inconveniently-its-still-there/
23. 2009: Climate Genius Prince Charles Says we Have 96 Months to Save World
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/just-96-months-to-save-world-says-prince-charles-1738049.html
24. 2009: UK Prime Minister Says 50 Days to ‘Save The Planet From Catastrophe’
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2009/12/gore-new-study-sees-nearly-ice-free-arctic-summer-ice-cap-as-early-as-2014/1#.XVm6Py2ZNu3
25. 2009: Climate Genius Al Gore Moves 2013 Prediction of Ice-Free Arctic to
2014
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/jul/24/arctic-ice-free-methane-economy-catastrophe
26. 2013: Arctic Ice-Free by 2015
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/jul/24/arctic-ice-free-methane-economy-catastrophe
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02550-9
27. 2014: Only 500 Days Before ‘Climate Chaos’
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/planet-still-standing-500-days-after-french-foreign-minister-warned-of-climate-chaos
28. 1968: Overpopulation Will Spread Worldwide
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/book-incited-worldwide-fear-overpopulation-180967499/
29. 1970: World Will Use Up All its Natural Resources
http://www.mining.com/the-world-is-not-running-out-of-natural-resources/
30. 1966: Oil Gone in Ten Years
https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/weve-been-incorrectly-predicting-peak-oil-for-over-a-ce-1668986354
31. 1972: Oil Depleted in 20 Years
https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/weve-been-incorrectly-predicting-peak-oil-for-over-a-ce-1668986354
32. 1977: Department of Energy Says Oil will Peak in 1990s
https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/weve-been-incorrectly-predicting-peak-oil-for-over-a-ce-1668986354
33. 1980: Peak Oil In 2000
https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/weve-been-incorrectly-predicting-peak-oil-for-over-a-ce-1668986354
34. 1996: Peak Oil in 2020
https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/weve-been-incorrectly-predicting-peak-oil-for-over-a-ce-1668986354
35. 2002: Peak Oil in 2010
https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/weve-been-incorrectly-predicting-peak-oil-for-over-a-ce-1668986354
36. 2006: Super Hurricanes!
https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2015/06/01/media-fail-no-major-hurricanes-in-9-years/
37. 2005 : Manhattan Underwater by 2015
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2015/06/12/flashback-abcs-08-prediction-nyc-under-water-climate-change-june
38. 1970: Urban Citizens Will Require Gas Masks by 1985
https://www.aei.org/publication/18-spectacularly-wrong-predictions-made-around-the-time-of-first-earth-day-in-1970-expect-more-this-year-2/
39. 1970: Nitrogen buildup Will Make All Land Unusable
https://www.aei.org/publication/18-spectacularly-wrong-predictions-made-around-the-time-of-first-earth-day-in-1970-expect-more-this-year-2/
40. 1970: Decaying Pollution Will Kill all the Fish
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/11/27/nolte-only-anti-science-suckers-believe-climate-change-hysteria/
41. 1970s: Killer Bees!
https://groovyhistory.com/killer-bees-1970s
42. 1975: The Cooling World and a Drastic Decline in Food Production
http://www.denisdutton.com/cooling_world.htm
43. 1969: Worldwide Plague, Overwhelming Pollution, Ecological Catastrophe,
Virtual Collapse of UK by End of 20th
Century
https://books.google.com/books?id=azwQStEZq-8C&pg=PA606&dq=%22even+money+that+England+will+not+exist+in+the+year+2000%22&hl=en&ei=DCQYTa_XBI-q8AaF1ZWLDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result#v=onepage&q=%22even%20money%20that%20England%20will%20not%20exist%20in%20the%20year%202000%22&f=false
44. 1972: Pending Depletion and Shortages of Gold, Tin, Oil, Natural Gas,
Copper, Aluminum
http://www.donellameadows.org/wp-content/userfiles/Limits-to-Growth-digital-scan-version.pdf
45. 1970: Oceans Dead in a Decade, US Water Rationing by 1974, Food Rationing
by 1980
https://www.newspapers.com/image/934139/?terms=paul%2Behrlich%2Bblue%2Bsmoke
46. 1988: World’s Leading Climate Expert Predicts Lower Manhattan Underwater by
2018
https://wayback.archive.org/web/20110202162233/https://www.salon.com/books/int/2001/10/23/weather/
47. 2005: Fifty Million Climate Refugees by the Year 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/oct/12/naturaldisasters.climatechange1
48. 2000: Snowfalls Are Now a Thing of the Past
https://web.archive.org/web/20150912124604/http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html
49.1989: UN Warns That Entire Nations Wiped Off the Face of the Earth by 2000
From Global Warming
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SJ&s_site=mercurynews&p_multi=SJ&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB7304FF9A84273&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM
50. 2011: Washington Post Predicted Cherry Blossoms Blooming in Winter
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/could-cherry-blossoms-one-day-be-blooming-in-winter/2012/03/14/gIQAnas1CS_story.html
Me again. Environmentalism has it all wrong since the environment has become
much, much better in later decades, in area after area - thanks to economic
growth, market economy and technology. Look:
* A long list of substances have been banned or their use heavily reduced:
DDT, PCB, CFCs, mercury, leaded petrol, sulphur, dioxins, PBDEs and lots of
other letter combinations.
* Earth is becoming greener, an effect of eg the fast urbanisation when
unprofitable farmland grows back to forests
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/human-activity-in-china-and-india-dominates-the-greening-of-earth-nasa-study-shows
Growing plant mass will take increasing care of much CO2 too, if you worry
about that.
* Loss rate of at least bigger animals, mammals and birds, is slowing - they
are the critters we care about, really (insects just bugs us, and we don't even
know if insect species are 5 or 50 million). Stoneage people where big
exterminators killing off every mammoth and all sabre-toothed predators,
medieval sailors killed the last dodo and their escaped ship's cats did the
rest, 19th Century Buffalo Bill & Co massacred millions of prey. Now we do our
best to protect species. We set off national parks with armed guards. We ban
sales of ebony and fur. etc. New technology also comes to aid (eg
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190823140706.htm ).
* Oil spill in the oceans have shrunk by over 90%. GPS stops ships to sail
astray and hit rocks. Growing economy makes harbours being able to afford oil
cleansing equipment.
* Overpopulation won't happen. Population will top at around 10 Billion
around 2050 and then begin to shrink. An ageing population will be a bigger
problem.
* Economic growth simply makes us being better able to afford protective
measures. Growth is also a result of processes being made *more efficient*,
which means less energy and raw material used. Recycling is also growing.
* Now, climate...big debate. My position is known: the small bounce back we
see from the Little Ice Age is probably to the greatest degree caused by
changes in the Sun's magnetic activity, directing cloud forming and Earth
albedo, as found by eg professor Henrik Svensmark (see eg
https://greatclimatedebate.com/why-the-greenhouse-gas-theory-flunks-the-albedo-test/
or
https://www.thegwpf.org/new-paper-solar-impact-on-climate-greater-than-thought/).
But those claiming that growth and market economy, as opposed to command
economy, just "destroys the Earth" - to deprive it of energy is an effective
stab in the heart of the progress of the modern world, the progress they mean
to stop.
More could be mentioned.
Fortunately I think the environmentalists will fail in the long run. For
decades it has been obvious that the apocalyptic scaremongers have always been
wrong, as you can see from the list above. Repent! has been cried over and over
again. Every yell will become just a little bit weaker, until we can just
forget about the clowns in green clothing. It may take time. Trends in society
tend to go in rather long "waves". But that's what will happen.
Aren't you relieved that we are NOT doomed!
--Ahrvid
--Ahrvid
/På engelska, då listan jag utgick från är på engelska. Och så finns nog
internationellt intresse för ämnet, av någon konstig anledning... --AE/
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