XPost: alt.politics.uk, alt.politics.scorched-earth, uk.politics.misc   
   XPost: 24hoursupport.helpdesk   
   From: burfordTjustice@tues.uk   
      
   On Sat, 22 Apr 2017 10:49:18 -0500   
   "Byker"  wrote:   
      
   > In 1970 I was a senior in high school and I remember participating in   
   > the very first "Earth Day" demonstration, where we all came to school   
   > on skateboards and bicycles.  It seemed like everyone was reading Paul   
   > Ehrlich's "The Population Bomb" and accepting it as gospel. We   
   > believed all that eco-crap about famines in the U.S. that would be   
   > taking place in the 1980s (hah!) and that wars would be fought over   
   > food (not!), and that all the life in the sea would be dead with ten   
   > years (ten years later just about everyone had forgotten about Earth   
   > Day). After we wised up about all of Ehrlich's bullshit, he and his   
   > kind found a new audience in Generation X and the Millennials and   
   > continue to dish out the sky-is-falling Chicken Little chickenshit.   
   > Just about everything he predicted in 1968 has been debunked, and   
   > doubtless the paranoia he and his cronies are currently ballyhooing   
   > will be equally laughable a generation from now.   
   >    
   > As far as overpopulation goes, we now worry that birth rates are   
   > falling below replacement levels in developed countries. This   
   > so-called clarion call appears about once a generation and then drops   
   > down the memory hole for another thirty years or so.  Back in the   
   > 1920s the budding Eugenics movement promoted a wave of paranoia   
   > regarding "race extinction."  It's hard to read these old newspaper   
   > articles now and keep a straight face.  Example: Alarmed by a   
   > declining birth rate, Swedish prognosticators in 1928 declared that   
   > unless their women started having one baby after another, by 1980   
   > there would be no more Swedes! The birth-control-to-race-extinction   
   > myths, like Nostradamus "prophecies," surface about once a   
   > generation, make their headlines, and are forgotten again until   
   > someone tries to foist them onto the next generation.   
   >    
   > Claim: April 1970: “If present trends continue, the world will be …   
   > eleven degrees colder by the year 2000. This is about twice what it   
   > would take to put us in an ice age.” Kenneth E.F. Watt, in Earth Day,   
   > 1970.   
   >    
   > Data: According to NASA, global temperature has increased by about 1   
   > degree Fahrenheit since 1970.   
   >    
   > Claim: Jan. 1970: “By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the   
   > amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half.”   
   >    
   > Data: Air quality has actually improved since 1970. Studies find that   
   > sunlight reaching the Earth fell by somewhere between 3 and 5 percent   
   > over the period in question.   
   >    
   > Claim: 1970: “In ten years all important animal life in the sea will   
   > be extinct. Large areas of coastline will have to be evacuated   
   > because of the stench of dead fish.” Paul Ehrlich, speech during   
   > Earth Day, 1970.   
   >    
   > I remember that bit about all the life in sea dying off.   
   >    
   > It's fun going through old books and newspapers.  You find find all   
   > kinds of entertaining tidbits, like:   
   >    
   > In 1865, Stanley Jevons (one of the most recognized 19th century   
   > economists) predicted that England would run out of coal by 1900, and   
   > that England’s factories would grind to a standstill.   
   >    
   > In 1885, the US Geological Survey announced that there was “little or   
   > no chance” of oil being discovered in California.   
   >    
   > In 1891, it said the same thing about Kansas and Texas.   
   >    
   > In 1939 the US Department of the Interior said that American oil   
   > supplies would last only another 13 years.   
   >    
   > In 1944 a federal government review predicted that by now the US   
   > would have exhausted its reserves of 21 of 41 commodities it   
   > examined. Among them were tin, nickel, zinc, lead and manganese.   
   >    
   > In 1949 the Secretary of the Interior announced that the end of US   
   > oil was in sight.   
   >    
   > In 1972 the "Club of Rome" picked up the torch and ran:   
   > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth   
   >    
   > And what happened? NOTHING!    
   >    
      
   13 Most Ridiculous Predictions Made on Earth Day, 1970   
   https://ricochet.com/424431/13-ridiculous-predictions-made-earth-day-1970/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)