And they wonder why we laugh at them.
âWe have about five more years at the outside to do something.â
⢠Kenneth Watt, ecologist
âCivilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.â
⢠George Wald, Harvard Biologist
âWe are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.â
⢠Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist
âMan must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.â
⢠New York Times editorial, the day after the first Earth Day
âPopulation 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.â
⢠Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
âByâŚ[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.â
⢠Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
âIt is already too late to avoid mass starvation.â
⢠Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day
âDemographers 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 conditionsâŚ.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.â
⢠Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University
âScientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to supportâŚthe following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollutionâŚby 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one halfâŚ.â
⢠Life Magazine, January 1970
âAt the present rate of nitrogen buildup, itâs only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.â
⢠Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
Stanford's Paul Ehrlich announces that the sky is falling.
âAir pollutionâŚis certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.â
⢠Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
âWe are prospecting for the very last of our resources and using up the nonrenewable things many times faster than we are finding new ones.â
⢠Martin Litton, Sierra Club director
âBy the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rateâŚthat there wonât be any more crude oil. Youâll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill âer up, buddy,â and heâll say, `I am very sorry, there isnât any.'â
⢠Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
âDr. 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.â
⢠Sen. Gaylord Nelson
âThe 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.â
⢠Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
Earth Day predictions of 1970. The reason you shouldnât believe Earth Day predictions of 2009.
âWe have about five more years at the outside to do something.â
⢠Kenneth Watt, ecologist
âCivilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.â
⢠George Wald, Harvard Biologist
âWe are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.â
⢠Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist
âMan must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.â
⢠New York Times editorial, the day after the first Earth Day
âPopulation 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.â
⢠Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
âByâŚ[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.â
⢠Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
âIt is already too late to avoid mass starvation.â
⢠Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day
âDemographers 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 conditionsâŚ.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.â
⢠Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University
âScientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to supportâŚthe following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollutionâŚby 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one halfâŚ.â
⢠Life Magazine, January 1970
âAt the present rate of nitrogen buildup, itâs only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.â
⢠Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
Stanford's Paul Ehrlich announces that the sky is falling.
âAir pollutionâŚis certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.â
⢠Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
âWe are prospecting for the very last of our resources and using up the nonrenewable things many times faster than we are finding new ones.â
⢠Martin Litton, Sierra Club director
âBy the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rateâŚthat there wonât be any more crude oil. Youâll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill âer up, buddy,â and heâll say, `I am very sorry, there isnât any.'â
⢠Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
âDr. 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.â
⢠Sen. Gaylord Nelson
âThe 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.â
⢠Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
Earth Day predictions of 1970. The reason you shouldnât believe Earth Day predictions of 2009.