Drop Dead Fred
Diamond Member
- Jun 6, 2020
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I thought I'd like to remind everyone of these predictions from the first Earth Day in 1970.
It's perfectly OK that these predictions turned out to be wrong. I don't hold that against environmentalists.
The problem, though, is that environmentalists have zero interest in learning why their predictions turned out to be wrong. And they know that most of the currnet younger generation is completely unaware of these failed predictions of the past. So when environmentalists make their current predictions about all the bad thiongs that are going to happen in the future, they do so with the full knowledge that most younger people are completely unaware of their failed predictions of the past.
In fact, a lot of environmentalists actually get mad when I point out these failed predictions of the past. I have repeatedly added these quotes to Wikipedia's article on Earth Day, but they always get deleted. This deletion is a total violation of wikipedia's "neutral point of view" policy, which requires that all relevant sides be included.
No one n the environmental movement has been so consistently wrong in their predictions, for so many decades, as Paul Ehrlich. And yet despite him being so wrong for so long, he is constantly being praised by environmentalists, given all sorts of awards, and invited to give lots of speeches.
Meanwhile, a guy named Julian Simon, who wrote a book about why Ehrlich's predictions failed to come true, is completely ignored by most environmentalists. And the ones who don't ignore him, absolutely hate him.
So they love Ehrlich for being wrong. And they hate Simon for being right.
Here are the quotes from the first earth Day:
* Denis Hayes, the chief organizer for the first Earth Day, wrote, “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.”
* Senator Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day, stated, “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.”
* Peter Gunter, a professor at North Texas State University, stated, “… 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.”
* Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb, predicted that between 1980 and 1989, 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, would starve to death.
* Life Magazine wrote, “… by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half.”
* Ecologist Kenneth Watt stated, “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.”
* Watt also stated, “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.”
Source: Earth Day, Then and Now
It's perfectly OK that these predictions turned out to be wrong. I don't hold that against environmentalists.
The problem, though, is that environmentalists have zero interest in learning why their predictions turned out to be wrong. And they know that most of the currnet younger generation is completely unaware of these failed predictions of the past. So when environmentalists make their current predictions about all the bad thiongs that are going to happen in the future, they do so with the full knowledge that most younger people are completely unaware of their failed predictions of the past.
In fact, a lot of environmentalists actually get mad when I point out these failed predictions of the past. I have repeatedly added these quotes to Wikipedia's article on Earth Day, but they always get deleted. This deletion is a total violation of wikipedia's "neutral point of view" policy, which requires that all relevant sides be included.
No one n the environmental movement has been so consistently wrong in their predictions, for so many decades, as Paul Ehrlich. And yet despite him being so wrong for so long, he is constantly being praised by environmentalists, given all sorts of awards, and invited to give lots of speeches.
Meanwhile, a guy named Julian Simon, who wrote a book about why Ehrlich's predictions failed to come true, is completely ignored by most environmentalists. And the ones who don't ignore him, absolutely hate him.
So they love Ehrlich for being wrong. And they hate Simon for being right.
Here are the quotes from the first earth Day:
* Denis Hayes, the chief organizer for the first Earth Day, wrote, “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.”
* Senator Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day, stated, “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.”
* Peter Gunter, a professor at North Texas State University, stated, “… 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.”
* Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb, predicted that between 1980 and 1989, 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, would starve to death.
* Life Magazine wrote, “… by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half.”
* Ecologist Kenneth Watt stated, “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.”
* Watt also stated, “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.”
Source: Earth Day, Then and Now
