They say those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Read this article in the Vancouver Sun, May 1982, and tell compare to the sorts of news stories we are seeing today about the same topic with the same overhyped warnings:
Hauntingthelibrary writes:
The trouble with the alarmists is that they don’t seem to realize that people are capable of looking back over what they said before, and judging them by their past record.
Perfect example: In 1982 Mustafa Tolba of the United Nations Environment Program excoriated the world’s governments for failing to institute “ecologically sound management” and warned them, in an “official forecast” that if they didn’t mend their ways,
by the turn of the century, an ecological catastrophe which will witness devastation as complete, as irreversible as any nuclear holocaust
Vancouver Sun, May 1982. Ecological Disaster Feared.
Mustafa tolba went on to become Executive Director for UNEP.
ROFLMAO!!!
I read that several times trying to determine what the ecological disaster was. The only thing I could find was “marked deterioration in the quality of our shared environment.” I am not sure what that means, but it sounds bad. Maybe that was the ozone hole.
I have to give it to them. They have certainly tuned the message much more specifically to total and absolute boiling of the oceans (after they flood the Earth). They have learned to be specific. Same accuracy, but they add more details now.
John Kehr
The Inconvenient Skeptic
Those rabid environmentalists get everywhere, even 28 years ago. They certainly have no hindsight.
CO2 not mentioned. Hmm.
Well clearly the guberments must have acted, since we didn’t have a disaster.
Shows the prediction was right.
Time to ditch the UN, IMF, WHO, EU and all other international NWO wannabees. We don’t need World government nor their rantings. Time to restore our individual country sovereignty.
I recall some poster having previously suggested that someone should collate a record of predictions and summarise to what extent those predictions were correct.
That would be extremely useful since it would demonstrate that the end of the world was never nigh and by inference is still not nigh today, whatever some doom sayer may be suggesting. It would help demonstrate to the public that despite what is being said, we have time on our side. We have time to get a proper handle on the data (may be starting from scratch a new reconstruction of past global records) and there is no need for knee jerk reaction, and there is time for a considered approach to addressing any problem that may truly exist.
Could they be any more vague in that 1982 article?
I don’t understand the article from ’82. What exactly is the problem that will lead to this appocalypse?
The only thing I can see is “a marked deteriation in the quality of our shared environment”. What the hell does that mean? And how do you get from that to a disaster on the scale of Nuclear War?
History is very inconvenient for the Warmists, who know that ‘he who controls the past, controls the present’.
Their brazen serial manipulation of data is at the center of their efforts to control the past, rewriting events such as the MWP and LIA.
They should not be allowed to get away with their deception, so pointing out historical events is very valuable in countering their bluster.
Deserts? Usually I halt one before breakfast — and, I don’t have UN grants to support me.
Some of us remember these stories…
Are you kidding? It’s articles like that got him the job. Welcome to the Twilight Zone.
It’s interesting to see that the Prime Minister of Australia is referring to the recent floods as one of the the country’s “natural disasters” No reference to GW or AGW as the cause. http://greg4ess.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/aussie-floods/
Well of course he did. And Patchy will get a promotion after his stint at the IPCC is over. Houghton is still on the gravy train. Hansen, Trenberth and all the rest have very very secure futures.
That’s how the UN operates. Once you’re in, you’re in. The greatest gravy train in history just keeps rolling on and on, getting bigger by the day.
Just another in that long tradition of catastrophe theories that came to nothing…Malthus, Marx, Erlich – oh, I left out millennium dire predictions, (2x) maybe third time unlucky (-:
Just another in that long line of catastrophe theories that came to nothing. Malthus, Marx, Erlich – oh, I left out failed millenium theories, twice!…Maybe next time they’ll get lucky (-:
Don’t know how this came up twice! Just unlucky I guess!(-:
i guess if you were a pelican in the gulf of mexico recently you might be a little more sympathetic to the article.
Forecast wrong? EZ-peezee, just move the goalposts to 2135 or better yet, 2100.
The first rule of apocalyptic forcasting is “Never forecast an event that will happen within the next generation’s lifetime.”
“The trouble with the alarmists is that they don’t seem to realize that people are capable of looking back over what they said before, and judging them by their past record.”
That is why most of their predictions are in a 25-100 year timeframe, (a) so you will not remember it, (b) they have finished milking it for every last cent the taxpayer has, or (c) they have found another scam that pays better.
The “media” have been publishing stories like this since the late 19th century. Nothing to see here, move along!
Are these comments a joke? Eastern Africa (and the continent as a whole) has been devastated by environmental degradation….
http://www.fao.org/docrep/x5318e/x5318e02.htm
*Not only is Africa geologically old and afflicted with a harsh climate, but also large parts of the continent have been occupied by human beings much longer than in other continents. Human activities in obtaining food, fibre, fuel and shelter have, therefore, significantly altered the soil.
*Though degradation is largely man-made, and hence its pace is governed primarily by the speed at which population pressure mounts, irregular natural events, such as droughts, exacerbate the situation. The 1982/85 drought, for example, had a dramatic effect on the speed of land degradation and desertification. Essential though food aid is in such emergencies, it clearly does nothing to alleviate environmental *Nomadic herders, grazing animals on arid and semi-arid lands, are particularly vulnerable to drought, since it depletes their most precious assets: their livestock herds. In northern and eastern Kenya, we saw the drought of 1992 decimate the livestock herds of pastoral communities, forcing herders to sell cheaply to local traders.damage.
*Desertification is a serious problem in the continent. It has been estimated that 319 million hectares of Africa are vulnerable to desertification hazards due to sand movement. An FAO/UNEP assessment of land degradation in Africa suggests that large areas of countries north of the equator suffer from serious desertification problems. For example, the desert is said to be moving at an annual rate of 5 km in the semi-arid areas of West Africa.
*Soil degradation caused by deforestation is also a serious threat in Africa. Deforestation exposes the soil to high temperatures which break down the organic matter, increase evaporation and make the soils vulnerable to erosion. Thirty-seven million hectares of forest and wood lands in Africa are said to be disappearing each year (FAO, 1986). More serious still is the gradual removal of trees in farms and pastures, which are crucial for protecting productive land from erosion.
*Africa’s forests and woodlands are also being depleted, threatening one of the continent’s most important resources. In Africa, trees play an important role in protecting the environment. They are the principal source of rural energy, and provide countless medicinal and industrial products used in both the home and in small-scale industry.
*Nearly 4 million hectares of this resource are now being deforested or degraded annually, largely in humid and sub-humid West Africa. The rate of destruction is alarmingly high in the Cameroon, in Côte d’lvoire and in Nigeria. The cause of deforestation is mainly clearing for agriculture but uncontrolled logging, gathering for fuelwood, fire and overgrazing are also taking their toll. In most parts of Africa, the current trend cannot be continued indefinitely: in some places, deforestation rates exceed planting rates by a factor of 30:1.
*Even with high inputs, Kenya’s lands can support only 51 million people a total that will be passed by 2010. By 2025 there maybe 83 million Kenyans, with as many as 111 million before the population reaches its plateau.
Sounds pretty bad to me….although I’m sure it’s fine if you’re an armchair pundit.
I remember the exact same bogus claims made in the 70s..and I was young enough to be fooled then..not now!
yes! a collection of all the scare and fearmongering items in one place with all the TRUTH alongside.
would be great 🙂
“During his long tenure (1975–1992), he played an important role in the fight against ozone depletion, which culminated with the Vienna Convention (1985) and the Montreal Protocol (1987).”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mostafa_Kamal_Tolba
The real disaster is these charlatans are succsesfully contributing to the wrecking of the economies of the west.
Now that’s the real disaster , or is it the real agenda ?
I suppose that statistically if they keep predicting an armageddon it will happen somewhere. It’s WTWT, WAGTD!
BTW It’s official, folks, BBC 1 lunchtime news announced casually in the presenter’s usual light banter with the upcoming forecaster, that 2010 was the “second hottest year after 1998”!!! FACT. The forecaster even rubbed in the fact that one wouldn’t have thought so after all that snow & ice, etc. Bloomin marvellous! Keep going chaps, keep hoping!
The Deserts they are talking about was northern Africa and they were correct in stating the size of it was and still is increasing. They were wrong as to the cause of the problem being something man can control. The wobble of the earth causes a weather pattern shift over thousand year time periods resulting in times of much rain and other times of little rain. It also helped that humans were overgrazing the land but I don’t think anyone would be able to tell the people who live there to stop doing that. In the end there would be very little the UN could do much like today with Global Warming.