The sky is falling!

[dezfan]

Fifteen Foolish Forecasts:

How did environmentalists get it so wrong on Earth Day 1970?

April 22, 2011

What was once Earth Day has now morphed into Earth Hour and Earth Week. The success of the celebration can only be explained by the fact that no one ever bothers to go back to check the accuracy of the eco-wackos’ past predictions.

For example, the predictions made at the first Earth Day in 1970 were wrong. No, wrong isn’t a strong enough word. They were spectacularly wrong. Let’s cover all the tenses and say they were wrong, they are wrong, and then make our own prediction and say they will be wrong in the future.



Jim Morrison, gone. Elvis Presley, gone. Michael Jackson, gone. But none of them were killed by the environment.

Need proof? Here are some of the hilarious, remarkably wrong predictions made on Earth Day 1970.

“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

“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



Leisure suits are gone, but the Earth is still here


“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

“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.”
• Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day

“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

“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

“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



Sadly, vegans have outlived the Vega.


“Air pollution…is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.”
• 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

“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

“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

“We have about five more years at the outside to do something.”
• Kenneth Watt, ecologist

(This last one is my favorite. I remember the "Coming Ice Age" being referenced often. )

“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

Today, Earth Day, the eco-wackos will surely get their day moment in the spotlight and their soundbites on the nightly news. They’ll predict a future even grimmer than they predicted 41 years ago.

And they’ll be just as wrong 41 years from now.

[TEAM DEBEAD]

How the hell do these people have any credibility left what so ever?! They have the power to BS their way to closing down public lands and ruining everything for the rest of us. Why do the DBags in power still listen to their lies?

[TexasSP]

It's all about money and power, nothing more, nothing less. Follow the trail and it will lead you there every single time.

[DonsATV]

Originally Posted by TEAM DEBEAD

Why do the DBags in power still listen to their lies?

Bad news sells!!

[Duuuuuuuude]

So here's what I'm thinking...

1. Who's to say that because of those warnings the situations weren't resolved, delayed, or avoided all together?

2. We haven't been around long enough to fully understand the cycles and behaviors of our planet. All we can do is guess.

3. Calling them "lies" is a harsh term. All of the subjects in question have potentially devastating effects, so a little attention to them is not at all a bad thing.

4. Predictions are not easy for anybody, even those that are supposedly in the know. Jesus himself told his disciples that he would return to earth within some of their lifetimes to reclaim his kingdom. 2000 years later everyone is still happily holding their breath for that to happen...

[Mr.Slave]

dont shit in your living room.

[microgoat]

Originally Posted by Duuuuuuuude

So here's what I'm thinking...

1. Who's to say that because of those warnings the situations weren't resolved, delayed, or avoided all together?

Back then the problem was CO. Tailpipes, factories, coal plants, you name it they were all spewing. And the pollution controls implemented in the 70's have paid off. If it wasn't for them we'd be choking on that shit today. Oh, and lead too.

...

3. Calling them "lies" is a harsh term. All of the subjects in question have potentially devastating effects, so a little attention to them is not at all a bad thing.

Sounds like calling a spade a spade to me. With the cold war over, the powers that be need something for the masses to fear. Might as well be global warmi... climate change. Taxing the balls off your carbon use isn't going to change a god damn thing, except it'll line some pockets. The big carbon outputters (I'm not going to play the game of calling carbon a pollutant) will find ways to "trade" themselves green. Plant a tree in the rainforest or some shit.

4. Predictions are not easy for anybody, even those that are supposedly in the know. Jesus himself told his disciples that he would return to earth within some of their lifetimes to reclaim his kingdom. 2000 years later everyone is still happily holding their breath for that to happen...

Predictions are easy as long as you're not around to take any crap for them. I'll boldly predict that 50 years from now... something. Whatever. Doesn't matter cuz I'll either be dead or too senile to care.


As for Jesus, He's here already. Probably locked up in a mental hospital, or released and wandering the streets after the shock treatments blasted all the holiness out of Him. You really think we'd treat Jesus better than the Romans did?

[ROCKEDUP RICKY]

I think all their prediction were warnings and we have took the steps to keep those things from happening. If we didn't fix that stuff ,they would have been right.

[Skeeno]

My first thought is....Source? It looks like a copy/paste from some fake email.

[Duuuuuuuude]

Originally Posted by Skeeno

My first thought is....Source? It looks like a copy/paste from some fake email.

The statements probably are true, but the problem is the way they are presented, which would be that they are from kooky liberals who lie to get thier way. Putting that spin on "predictions" is incredibly easy.

Otherwise, yeah, it looks like an email.

[demonoid369]

Originally Posted by microgoat

As for Jesus, He's here already. Probably locked up in a mental hospital, or released and wandering the streets after the shock treatments blasted all the holiness out of Him. You really think we'd treat Jesus better than the Romans did?

For a second i busted out laughing, but then I thought about how true that it and that's really sad

[JeremyH]

They should have followed in Nostradamus' footsteps.....make general statements that could be applied to any situation...

"Something bad will happen on Earth in the 1990's..."

[Mr.Slave]

Originally Posted by JeremyH

They should have followed in Nostradamus' footsteps.....make general statements that could be applied to any situation...

"Something bad will happen on Earth in the 1990's..."

RIP kurt cobain :(

[ROCKEDUP RICKY]

Originally Posted by JeremyH

They should have followed in Nostradamus' footsteps.....make general statements that could be applied to any situation...

"Something bad will happen on Earth in the 1990's..."

In the future Texas will become it's own counrty and then take over the USA.

[JeremyH]

Originally Posted by ROCKEDUP RICKY

In the future Texas will become it's own counrty and then take over the USA.

Silly, that has already happened....

[dezfan]

I thought the predictions from the first Earth Day were hilarious.

It amazes me what the environmentalist can say w/o any factual basis in the name of science, when in reality it's just another faction of the Liberal Left attempting to scare people into giving up their rights and freedoms in the name of "saving the planet".

Growing up, all I heard was that we were heading for an ice age. When that idea was put on ice, it gave way to the eco-weenies freaking out because of the ozone hole over the South pole, then they really went postal over the whole global "warming" farce! Now that that has been debunked and they were caught red handing trying to manipulate the data to skew the results to fit their agenda. Now they have switched it to "Global Climate Change".

Climate changes, really?

No shit, in the last 30 years the climate alarmist have "changed" from predicting an ice age to planet wide devastation and destruction from "warming". 5 years ago, the UN "environmental scientist" were predicting that there would be over 50 million "environmental refugees" in 2010 do to the effects of "global warming".

When it was recently brought to the public's attention that another Chicken Little prediction had come and gone w/o a single bit of validity, it magically disappeared from the UN's website.

It seems as their "science" is debunked, their target becomes more and more vague so that they can continue to use this unsubstantiated BS to continually restrict our rights and freedoms.

How anyone can look back over the last 30+ years of the "environmental movement" and continue to give them any validity of any kind absolutly boggles my mind.

[RANOVRU]

Educate yourselve's.

Dont knock the facts because of a few exaggerated predictions. Those are there in every facet of life.

In the end, after all the money & politics, neither of which will help the earth, there will not be a way to "buy" ourselves out of the situation.

[Mr.Slave]

Originally Posted by dezfan

I thought the predictions from the first Earth Day were hilarious.

It amazes me what the environmentalist can say w/o any factual basis in the name of science, when in reality it's just another faction of the Liberal Left attempting to scare people into giving up their rights and freedoms in the name of "saving the planet".

Growing up, all I heard was that we were heading for an ice age. When that idea was put on ice, it gave way to the eco-weenies freaking out because of the ozone hole over the South pole, then they really went postal over the whole global "warming" farce! Now that that has been debunked and they were caught red handing trying to manipulate the data to skew the results to fit their agenda. Now they have switched it to "Global Climate Change".

Climate changes, really?

No shit, in the last 30 years the climate alarmist have "changed" from predicting an ice age to planet wide devastation and destruction from "warming". 5 years ago, the UN "environmental scientist" were predicting that there would be over 50 million "environmental refugees" in 2010 do to the effects of "global warming".

When it was recently brought to the public's attention that another Chicken Little prediction had come and gone w/o a single bit of validity, it magically disappeared from the UN's website.

It seems as their "science" is debunked, their target becomes more and more vague so that they can continue to use this unsubstantiated BS to continually restrict our rights and freedoms.

How anyone can look back over the last 30+ years of the "environmental movement" and continue to give them any validity of any kind absolutly boggles my mind.

what rights and freedoms?

[ctrwannabe]

I donno, this one still sounds good to me....


“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

[Mr.Slave]

Originally Posted by ctrwannabe

I donno, this one still sounds good to me....


“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

thats my whole deal.

Like ive said before
Its like taking a shit in your living room for years and years and then arguing about whats causing all the flies in the house.. who cares? stop shitting in your living room!