Earth Day 2010 - 40 Years of Outrageous Predictions

Here is an excellent article on the subject titled “Earth Day 2010 – Celebrating 40 years of outrageous predictions of doom.”

Forty years ago Earth Day was founded as a way to give greater visibility to environmental concerns across the globe. The event is celebrated annually and while the focus has now shifted to one primarily on manmade climate change, just like in 1970, today we continue to hear dire warnings of man’s impending doom.

From that very first Earth Day, laying out a reasoned case to spur the public into action was not deemed adequate. Instead, the use of predictions of the end of times were used as a scare tactic.

The founder of Earth Day, Senator Gaylord Nelson was not shy about using hyperbole to drive home his belief of the dangers presented. He famously proclaimed that, “Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years (that would be 1995), somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”

It would appear that something miraculous occurred since that first Earth Day and today as the Earth is teeming with life just as it was then.

Nelson was not alone in attempting to foreshadow a world of death and destruction. Dr. Paul Ehrlich, author of the largely discredited 1968 book “The Population Bomb,” was famous for making outrageous claims.

Worldwide famine was a major fear in 1970. Among the more interesting statements he made, Ehrlich warned that “at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”

North Texas State University professor Peter Gunter echoed the predictions of death that would be visited on the Earth stated by Ehrlich. He said, “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, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”

Some might find humor in the statement “agree almost unanimously” and equate that to the “scientific consensus” we hear about today that supposedly exists about the manmade climate change theory...

Then of course there is the self-appointed spokesman for those advocating the manmade climate change theory, Al Gore...