Earth Day "facts" From The Past

[cmotherofpirl]

Remember this stuff the next time somebody prophesies doom for Earth Day:

• “...civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind,” biologist George Wald, Harvard University, April 19, 1970.

• By 1995, “...somewhere between 75 and 85 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.” Sen. Gaylord Nelson, quoting Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, Look magazine, April 1970.

• Because of increased dust (the ultra-handsome), cloud cover and water vapor “...the planet will cool, the water vapor will fall and freeze, and a new Ice Age will be born,” Newsweek magazine, January 26, 1970.

• The world will be “...eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age,” Kenneth Watt, speaking at Swarthmore University, April 19, 1970.

• “We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation,” biologist Barry Commoner, University of Washington, writing in the journal Environment, April 1970.

• “Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from the intolerable deteriorations and possible extinction,” The New York Times editorial, April 20, 1970.

• “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,” Paul Ehrlich, interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970.

• “...air pollution...is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone,” Paul Ehrlich, interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970.

• Ehrlich also predicted that in 1973, 200,000 Americans would die from air pollution, and that by 1980 the life expectancy of Americans would be 42 years.

• “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation,” Earth Day organizer Denis Hayes, The Living Wilderness, Spring 1970.

• “By the year 2000...the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America and Australia, will be in famine,” Peter Gunter, North Texas State University, The Living Wilderness, Spring 1970.

General rule of Thumb: Righties use militarist apocalyptic catastrophe scenarios to manipulate people with fear. Lefties use environmentalist apocalyptic catastrophe scenarios to manipulate people with fear.

The key word to remember here is neither "militarist" nor "environmentalist". It is "manipulate".

from Mark Sheas's blog.

[CatherineM]

We've got a foot or more of snow outside right now, and I spent an hour trying to get a neighbor's car unstuck. He was completely buried in the snow. I don't know about global warming, but climate change I'll buy. I've threatened to run away to my mother's house if it doesn't warm up soon.

[Archaeology cat]

Let's not forget Ted Turner's recent comments that we'll all be cannibals within 30 years because there won't be enough food.

[Justin86]

I personally would love to see an ultra-handsome d u s t cloud cover the earth myself.

[CatherineM]

I'm told human flesh tastes like pork, so does that mean if we all become cannibals that the Christians will outlast the Jews and Muslims?

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='Archaeology cat' post='1507289' date='Apr 23 2008, 05:17 AM']Let's not forget Ted Turner's recent comments that we'll all be cannibals within 30 years because there won't be enough food.[/quote]
Funny, since he owns a restaurant in Omaha called "Ted's Place"...wonder what changes to the menu he's planning...

[Archaeology cat]

[quote name='Raphael' post='1507409' date='Apr 23 2008, 03:39 PM']Funny, since he owns a restaurant in Omaha called "Ted's Place"...wonder what changes to the menu he's planning...[/quote]
Here's Colbert's response (sorry can't find the video): "Last week on 'Charlie Rose,' Ted Turner made a disturbing a prediction about global warming [on screen: Turner saying, 'It will be eight degrees hotter in ... 30 or 40 years. Basically, none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals']. That's right. Ted Turner thinks we will soon be cannibals. ... In a completely unrelated note, I would like to extend an invitation to the following people to come over to my house for dinner in let's say 2038: Tim Russert, mmm, you're head is so plump with questions; Karl Rove, I understand President Bush's early nickname for you was 'Butterball.' I would love to chew the fat with you, perhaps over a nice glass of chianti." --Stephen Colbert

[CatherineM]

Fat is where the flavor is.

[Fidei Defensor]

Your point? It's the same thing as someone posting quotes by religious persons as proof against religion. Their personal opinions which happened to have been wrong. Of course, in science, no one claims to be free from error, science by it's nature is trial and error.

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='fidei defensor' post='1508713' date='Apr 24 2008, 07:01 PM']Your point? It's the same thing as someone posting quotes by religious persons as proof against religion. Their personal opinions which happened to have been wrong. Of course, in science, no one claims to be free from error, science by it's nature is trial and error.[/quote] My point is everyone back then was convinced we were heading for an issue. THe reality is God knows and Hes not telling.

[zwergel88]

What's wrong with wanting to protect the Earth?

[Mercy me]

There is nothing wrong with wanting to protect the Earth or leaving it better than you found it. There is something wrong with being an alarmist.

[Socrates]

[quote name='fidei defensor' post='1508713' date='Apr 24 2008, 05:01 PM']Your point? It's the same thing as someone posting quotes by religious persons as proof against religion. Their personal opinions which happened to have been wrong. Of course, in science, no one claims to be free from error, science by it's nature is trial and error.[/quote]
Geez. This thread has nothing to do with "science vs. religion."

This was not an attack on "science."
Such alarmist, sensationalist claims are [b]not[/b] science, but politically-motivated alarmist agit-prop.
Science consists of testing hypotheses, then reaching a verifiable conclusion, not making wild, sensationalistic predictions, and passing them off as "scientific fact."

Interestingly, Paul Ehrlich wrote a sequel to [i]The Population Bomb [/i]in the '90s called [i]The Population Explosion[/i], in which he repeated much of the same claims about overpopulation dooming us all (though he admitted his timing was a little off in his first book.) Don't know why Chicken Little expected to be taken seriously the second time around.

[CatherineM]

I've always thought that the science side of studying the world just will never be there. How do you study something so large, so chaotic and unpredictable. We still can't predict where a hurricane is going to hit precisely well enough in advance to evacuate people properly. We do good to predict if it is going to rain tomorrow. Just because my gut tells me that I think climate change (not warming or cooling) is happening, it isn't evidence. I just hope that whatever changes are coming, that we can adapt to them.

[1337 k4th0l1x0r]

[quote name='zwergel88' post='1509040' date='Apr 24 2008, 09:03 PM']What's wrong with wanting to protect the Earth?[/quote]
Many of the things those in charge of the environmentalist groups want us to do will not help the problem. Ethanol has a larger carbon footprint than gasoline. The effort to keep nuclear power plants from being built forces increased burning of coal (which emits more carbon dioxide and radioactive material). Carbon offsets are merely a way for the guilty to feel absolved of their environmental sins.

Ways I'm a better environmentalist than Al Gore:
1. I don't fly in private jets.
2. I grow a garden for many of my vegetables.
3. I don't require a fleet of SUVs to accompany me when I go out in public.
4. I use about the annual average amount of electricity in my house in an entire year, not a single month.

You can care about the environment and do things for it without buying the whole global warming story. Who's to say that the Earth wouldn't be better off a little warmer?