Via iHateTheMedia, here are a few of the predictions made on the first Earth Day. Don’t these sound like the predictions today that fail, like the 50 million climate refugees by 2010 followed by the moving of the goalposts to 2020?
“We have about five more years at the outside to do something.”
• Kenneth Watt, ecologist
“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
• George Wald, Harvard Biologist
“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
“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
“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.”
• Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day
“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
“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
“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
“Air pollution…is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
“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
“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
and this classic:
“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
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Earth Week, April 16-22, originated in Philadelphia in 1970. I was there at Fairmount Park Philadelphia, and saw all of these speakers:
Saw U.S. Senator Edmund Muskie, Ralph Nader, Poet, Allen Ginsberg, Landscape Architect and author of “Design with Nature,” Ian McHarg, Nobel prize-winning Harvard Biochemist, George Wald, U.S. Senate Minority Leader, Hugh Scott, bacteriologist, Rene Dubois, climatologist Helmet Landsberg, economist, Kenneth Boulding, artist, writer and sociologist, John McHale, population biologist and author of The Population Bomb, Paul Ehrlich, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman, Ralph Lapp, hydrologist Luna Leopold, Urban Planner and author Lewis Mumford, Philosopher and author, Alan Watts, Ecologist, Kenneth Watt, and Frank Herbert, author of Dune.
Although Ira Einhorn, was there too, I don’t remember seeing him. I guess he was too busy chopping up his girlfriend…
Not sure exactly why I was there, but I was always interested in the environment – at one time wanted to become a Forest Ranger… Became an artist instead…
I cannot believe what all of this has become. I have been a skeptic from the start with “global Warming” – I just began looking at the data – that said it all for me.
Oh, I remember why I was there, it was my classmate Susan Mackaninly (rhymes with “bank of Italy”) who invited me – I guess she was an early progressive…
me too, always about the girl
goodness, I remember her – that was Alice
believe that was the only reason I, and my hormones were there
right, that pesky data thingy – does it every time – but too few follow data
The odds of being wrong about doomsday predictions are holding steady at 100%.
The trend is as old as human civilization.
Meanwhile, Earth is having it’s own day.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/22/an-extraordinary-time-lapse-view-of-the-eruption-of-chiles-calbuco-volcano/?partner=rss&_r=0
23 April: Daily Mail: Francesca Chambers: I love the smell of jet fuel, says global warming advocate Bill Nye the Science Guy as he takes Air Force One to preach on carbon emissions
Engineer-turned-science-TV-host told a White House pool reporter that he loves the smell of jet fuel
Earth Day trip with President Obama aboard Boeing 747 is meant to highlight climate change threats but will leave a massive carbon footprint
Flights to the Florida Everglades and back will cover 1,836 miles and consume more than 9,180 gallons of fuel
The White House said Tuesday that Nye…would make the trek today on its behalf to shoot a video of the president…
Nye told press it was his first time on the president’s private jet, but he once rode AF2 with former Vice President Al Gore…
In a tweet last night, Nye said he was ‘heading down to DC to catch an #EarthDay flight on Air Force One with President Obama…
‘That said, the excitement, much like #climatechange, is real,’ he added in a follow-up tweet a minute later.
The statements were met with puzzled responses.
‘Doesn’t jet travel leave a big carbon footprint?’ user Timothy Grome wrote.
‘Hmm, seems ironic. doesn’t seem very climate friendly earth day,’ Allison B. of Galveston, Texas, said…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3051026/Climate-change-advocate-Bill-Nye-Science-Guy-takes-Air-Force-One-preach-carbon-emissions.html
Having heard the “wisdom” of Bill Nye (The Science Guy) I am unimpressed by his very limited knowledge, and mystified by his celebrity. True he does have a Mech. Eng. degree from Cornell, but Cornell has a lot of engineers. So it must be instead that he famously took a class from Carl Sagan. But a lot of people did that too – it was a class that required the services of Cornell’s large Bailey Hall auditorium. I pity all those who had to sit through those lectures. And I mean “SIT through” to be the operative phrase. The seats required considerable malleability on the part of the students! The lectures themselves were apparently quite good.
Anyone who sat in those seats had to deal with an unnaturally compressed and flattened butt for many years to come. (They have since been replaced – the old seats sold to “advanced interrogation” outfits throughout the world.) To the extent that those seats fashioned posteriors, they likely simultaneously changed overall perspectives (flattened and compressed) of the world – and that explains a lot.
What’s so sad is that the U.S. has spent $trillions on pollution rules/regs/mandate compliance costs over the last 35 years, and various harmful REAL pollutants have been cut 50~99%:
http://www.epa.gov/airtrends/aqtrends.html
Of course the aggressively ignorant leftist masses think pollution levels are getting worse and worse, thanks to the Leftists MSM and public school government propaganda on the subject, and a complete lack of inquisitiveness by the masses that simply believe what their told to believe by the State…
When will people wake up to reality???
Sorry… That’s they’re… not their…
21 April: Edmunds: Hybrid and Electric Vehicles Struggle to Maintain Owner Loyalty, Reports Edmunds.com
Earth Day Analysis Shows Car Buyers Trading in Alternative Fuel Vehicles for SUVs More than Ever Before
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — April 21, 2015 — Car buyers are trading in hybrid and electric cars for SUVs at a higher rate than ever before, according to a new analysis from car-buying platform Edmunds.com. The analysis offers a surprising look at how today’s gas prices are drawing hybrid and EV owners toward gas-guzzling vehicles at a much more accelerated pace than in recent years…
According to Edmunds.com, about 22 percent of people who have traded in their hybrids and EVs in 2015 bought a new SUV. The number represents a sharp increase from 18.8 percent last year, and it is nearly double the rate of 11.9 percent just three years ago…
“For better or worse, it looks like many hybrid and EV owners are driven more by financial motives rather than a responsibility to the environment,” says Edmunds.com Director of Industry Analysis Jessica Caldwell. “Three years ago, when gas was at near-record highs, it was a lot easier to rationalize the price premiums on alternative fuel vehicles. But with today’s gas prices as low as they are, the math just doesn’t make a very compelling case.”…
***Edmunds’ analysis comes at a time when overall sales of alternative vehicles have continued to slide. EVs and hybrids accounted for just 2.7 percent of all new car sales in the first quarter of 2015, down from 3.3 percent during that same period last year. The share of SUVs, meanwhile, has increased from 31.8 percent in Q1 2014 to 34.2 percent in Q1 2015…
http://www.edmunds.com/about/press/hybrid-and-electric-vehicles-struggle-to-maintain-owner-loyalty-reports-edmundscom.html
Honest John the motoring writer here in UK said that electric cars were suffering from a 60% depreciation in the first year of ownership, only an ecoloon would be happy with that!
Reblogged this on Home of the Little-Known Blogger and commented:
In case anyone wonders why I hate Earth Day… This is part of the reason.
OT. Volcanic eruption in Chile.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/chiles-calbuco-volcano-wakes-up-from-54year-slumber-20150423-1mri8r.html
Climate change belief, Islamic extremism and Christian fundamentalism regrettably all that the same foundation. It is the total lack of understanding of technology and it cost benefit ratio that has been exploited by groups with an agenda. This is why we see exactly the same cult like refusal in all three to allow any questioning of that belief and at times vicious treatment of heretics regardless of how inaccurate or unfounded the information around us shows the belief to be.
As a counterpoint to Earth Day there is an interesting article in today’s Telegraph by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard which paints a very rosy picture of the current state and future prospects for US oil and gas shale reserves.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/11556531/Oil-slump-may-deepen-as-US-shale-fights-Opec-to-a-standstill.html
It seems that Obama will go down in history as the man who presided over US’s greatest period of oil wealth and all the benefits to the economy that that brings – nice irony there.
One cautionary note: AEP has not the best reputation for economic prediction , having claimed the imminent destruction of the Euro for the last 5 years.
Sounds like the school of ‘oscillatory balance functions and asymptotic curves have no place in the natural world on planet earth…..’
I think top prize in the Alarmist Stakes has to go to this one
Over 4.5 Billion people could die from Global Warming-related causes by 2012
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2007/01/08/01291.html
I especially like this bit
Unfortunately, however, since it now 2015, I must have slept through it.
When CAGW hypothesis dies a well deserved death, anyone any ideas what will replace it? My guess is imaginary asteroids
I make no apologies for pasting this link again!
http://climatechangepredictions.org/
Happy Earth Day from Florida! Obama sends his best.
Happy St. George’s Day!
http://media.giphy.com/media/Ngub0rmNH7tSw/giphy.gif
Oh please, there are already millions of ‘Climate Refugees’! They leave New York and other northern States and flee to Florida every year to take up permanent residence in much smaller homes than they had up north. They are not called ‘climate refugees’ however, to mask the problem the government has manipulated the media to ensure that they are called ‘retirees’ instead.
🙂
Great reading. Thanks.
Bjorn Lomborg’s book “The Skeptical Environmentalist” drives much of the point home. He started to write a book that quantified all the environmental evils… but time after time found that most of the environmental challenges that arise (air/water pollution, starvation, etc) are getting better, not worse.
Earth Day goes back to 1970. Many of the climate forecasts now go back 30-40 years. We now have a long enough length of forecast vs observed to point out the constant failures and urge great caution before blindly accepting the next environmental Armageddon forecast
Perhaps on Earth Day we could have a TV awards ceremony called The Crystal Globe Awards and publicly embarrass those who failed to predict the future correctly. I vote for Penn&Teller as the first hosts.
How about The Crystal Maze? That was sh!t too…
Looks like a hoot! The only BBC programming I can get here is on PBS.
Nah! Rocky Horror Show was his best work. I guess we all have to “whore” ourselves to pay the bills at some time. HP can get rooted…
Just gave me an idea for a contest we farmers here can start called ‘The Crystal Maize Award’. Each guy predicts his corn crop yield per-acre and the one who is closest gets the trophy (which consists of the set of crystal corn dishes I just inherited). Travelling trophy of course.
Fear mongerers with agendas
I posted this classic list on facebook, and was immediately trolled by a green lib posting links (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Anthony_Watts) trying to denigrate Anthony by trying to suggest he was on the Heartland payroll. He also mentioned the fact that there was a parody website out there (wottsupwiththat) as proof that this was a “disinformation” website. Ad hominem after ad hominem. I guess if you can’t attack the message, you attack the messenger. Keep up the good work, guys.
Menicholas April 22, 2015 at 8:37 pm & April 23, 2015 at 8:00 am
Congratulations on your epiphany about CAGW. However, whether or not neonics are worse/better than organophosphates I cannot say, but the jury is still out on these neonicotinoids, in my view.
MIxed links, pro and (mostly) con. Please pay particular attention to the comments at the
● 2/5/2014 Forbes article:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2014/02/05/bee-deaths-reversal-as-evidence-points-away-from-neonics-as-driver-pressure-builds-to-rethink-ban/2/
(Comment: 1. The scientific publications that are here presented to be from the “good scientists” have been carried out by authors that present strong ties with the pesticides industry: Scott-Duprey has been funded by Bayer and British government laboratory DEFRA’s honey bee senior scientist (H. Thompson) has always had an industry-like approach before…leaving DEFRA to fall in the arms of Syngenta…)
● Most recent news items, link to Nature study below.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/neonics-pesticide-poses-substantial-risk-to-wild-bees-studies-claim-10195792.html
● More Damning Evidence Against Neonics: Could it Sway an EU Vote?
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/14260/20150422/more-damning-evidence-against-neonics-sway-eu-vote.htm
● Men’s sperm counts and pesticides:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/pesticide-residues-on-some-fruit-and-vegetables-harming-mens-fertility-study-claims-10144722.html
● KCET Earth Focus: (28 minutes)
http://www.kcet.org/shows/earth_focus/full-episodes/watch-earth-focus—-neonicotinoids-the-new-ddt.html
● KCET short web version (8 minutes)
http://www.kcet.org/shows/earth_focus/web-videos/watch-neonics-toxic-until-fully-tested.html
Scott Hoffman Black, executive director of The Xerces Society, talks about the impact of neonicotinoid pesticides on the environment.
● From Nature Published online 22 April 2015
Seed coating with a neonicotinoid insecticide negatively affects wild bees:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/nature14420.pdf#close
● 3/25/2014 Huff Post – ‘Neonics Not Key Driver of Bee Deaths’–USDA Study May Clash With White House Poised to Restrict Pesticide
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-entine/neonics-not-key-driver-of_b_6928578.html
~
I will close by noting that this question about the neonicotinoids is a real environmental issue worthy of attention and discussion, but the front page environmental news from the MSM is about all impending global meltdown from a beneficial trace gas.
Be aware that those with the money fund the mass media megaphones, and never forget Golden Rule #2:
Those with the gold make the rules.
–sp–
Steve,
Thank you sir, I appreciate the feedback and the links.
Some thoughts from my tired-cause-its-late brain:
-The connection to colony collapse disorder must be investigated. But nearly every insecticide is highly toxic to bees.
-I doubt nicotine is a carcinogen, seriously.
-I was speaking strictly about efficacy and mammalian toxicity.
-That they are particularly effective at their intended purpose is a bit of a dilemma, in that they may be TOO good, no?
-Have to double check on persistence. Generally, pesticides that do not break down readily, more through soil, and/or are shown to bio-accumulate are not approved. I would not believe anything just because it is published. That is one lesson we all best learn, and soon.
Not so much of an epiphany, but I take your meaning. I was already completely aware it was pure BS.
I was studying this stuff in the mid eighties when the meme switched overnight.
I am more like freshly outraged.
Plus, now it is not just talk anymore.
It is beyond a joke, way beyond a laughing matter.
Typo …move through soil…
Earth Day Rally At The Washington Monument Leaves Grounds Smelling Like ‘Cow Poop’.
The odor of spring at the Washington Monument this week? ‘Gross.’
Ah, spring in Washington. Cherry blossoms, daffodils. The smell of flowers, cut grass and, on the grounds of the Washington Monument this week, cow poop?
A rank odor that visitors likened to cow deposits was borne on the breeze this week from a large mud flat left behind from Saturday’s Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day rally, just northeast of the Monument.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-odor-of-spring-at-the-washington-monument-this-week-gross/2015/04/22/c6678bb2-e90f-11e4-9767-6276fc9b0ada_story.html
Why was anyone surprised by the residual odor? Many of us have know that ‘Earth Day’ was bullsh*t since its inception in 1970.
I just found this. Scary stuff!!! I’m so startled right now!!!
“Not only are we fucked, but it’s coming much sooner than we expected. It’s coming in the first half of this century, not the second. By 2050 life for all but the simplest and most well-protected species on this planet will almost certainly be impossible, except for small numbers in a few marginal areas.
The whole issue of mitigation and the need for activism is now more-or-less moot. Even if we were to collectively and massively change our behaviour starting tomorrow, it would only delay collapse by a few years, and quite possible make the collapse even more catastrophic. Until recently there was at least a chance that perhaps a combination of behaviour change and the reduced availability of cheap fossil fuels might combine to pull us back from the brink, or at least make a much-changed and simpler life possible for a much smaller population of humans and other creatures. That chance is gone.”
https://damnthematrix.wordpress.com/tag/guy-mcpherson/page/2/
“Civilization will end within 15
or 30 years unless immediate
action is taken against
problems facing mankind.”
read: blitzkrieg.
Today on the highway circling Salzburg, pre alpine EU town, we had speed restrictions due to PM –
„National Air Quality“ Standard for Particulate Matter.
____
during wind and heavy rains.
____
the green burocrats installed the electronic overhead signals for. Now they use it eyes wide shut.
Hans
Guess they must have faked this whole video then.
Seriously you guys need to wake up to yourselves with your uneducated remarks…
Odd.
Just the “excess” sea ice around Antarctica just last June was an area the size of Greenland. Set an all-time record high. Guess they “forgot” to add that info in their well-funded movie, eh? Arctic sea ice last year was low – about 3% – 7% below normal.
A few days ago, the “excess” sea ice around Antarctica covered an area the size of Hudson Bay – 35% above normal.
Yeah its slippin off the continent fool
How did you watch a 75 minute vid in less than 20 mins ? See what I mean. No info . You didn’t even watch it but you think your comment is valid…lol
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/CAGW
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/CAGW
Says it all really
New quote: “All of the Antarctic ice will slip of the continent and into the ocean within the next 50 years” (unless you watch the video and/or vist the website)