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mm2001
Forum Admin
USA
870 Posts |
 Posted - Jul 18 2009 : 10:52:38 PM
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Predictions Of The ‘Overpopulation’ Alarmists: Wrong, Wrong, & Wrong Again
Earth Day, Then and Now
The planet’s future has never looked better. Here’s why.
Ronald Bailey
Updated Monday, July 13, 2009
http://www.prisonplanet.com/predictions-of-the-overpopulation-alarmists-wrong-wrong-wrong-again.html
a few excerpts from a very long article:
A Most Ridiculous Collection of "Predictions" by Noted Environmentalists in 1970 Concerning the Near Future of Air Pollution (if you think this is funny, check out the other expected outcomes for the early 21st Century in the article)
"In January 1970, Life reported, “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….” Ecologist Kenneth Watt told Time that, “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.” Barry Commoner cited a National Research Council report that had estimated “that by 1980 the oxygen demand due to municipal wastes will equal the oxygen content of the total flow of all the U.S. river systems in the summer months.” Translation: Decaying organic pollutants would use up all of the oxygen in America’s rivers, causing freshwater fish to suffocate.
Of course, the irrepressible Paul Ehrlich chimed in, predicting in his Mademoiselle interview that “air pollution…is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.” In Ramparts, Ehrlich sketched a scenario in which 200,000 Americans would die in 1973 during “smog disasters” in New York and Los Angeles..."
LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL (pardon me while I cough) LOL
"So has air pollution gotten worse? Quite the contrary. In the most recent National Air Quality Trends report, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency–itself created three decades ago partly as a response to Earth Day celebrations–had this to say: “Since 1970, total U.S. population increased 29 percent, vehicle miles traveled increased 121 percent, and the gross domestic product (GDP) increased 104 percent. During that same period, notable reductions in air quality concentrations and emissions took place.” Since 1970, ambient levels of sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide have fallen by 75 percent, while total suspended particulates like smoke, soot, and dust have been cut by 50 percent since the 1950s.
In 1988, the particulate standard was changed to account for smaller particles. Even under this tougher standard, particulates have declined an additional 15 percent. Ambient ozone and nitrogen dioxide, prime constituents of smog, are both down by 30 percent since the 1970s..."
Fertility Rates Dropping Below Replacement Level
"... total fertility (the number of children a woman has over the course of her lifetime) has been dropping nearly everywhere on the planet since 1970. In fact, it has dropped from around 6 children per woman in the 1960s to around 2.8 today–and shows no signs of stopping. Total fertility rates for 79 countries, including the United States, are below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman. If present trends continue, it looks like the U.N. low-variant population growth projection is likely, which means that world population will like-ly peak at around 8 billion in 2040 and then begin to decline..."
The Myth of Deforestation
"... Consider, for example, that (allegedly) one of the main causes of extinction is deforestation and the ensuing loss of habitat. According to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, what drives most tropical deforestation is not commercial logging, but “poor farmers who have no other option for feeding their families than slashing and burning a patch of forest.” By contrast, countries that practice high yield, chemically assisted agriculture have expanding forests. In 1920, U.S. forests covered 732 million acres. Today they cover 737 million acres, even though the number of Americans grew from 106 million in 1920 to 272 million now. Forests in Europe expanded even more dramatically, from 361 million acres to 482 million acres between 1950 and 1990. Despite continuing deforestation in tropical countries, Roger Sedjo, a senior fellow at the think tank Resources for the Future, notes that “76 percent of the tropical rain forest zone is still covered with forest.” Which is quite a far cry from being nine-tenths gone. More good news: In its State of the World’s Forests 1999, the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization documents that while forests in developing countries were reduced by 9.1 percent between 1980 and 1995, the global rate of deforestation is now slowing."
And lots and lots of other goodies at the following URL for your perusal:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/predictions-of-the-overpopulation-alarmists-wrong-wrong-wrong-again.html
"Cast a cold eye
On life, on death,
Horseman, pass by!"
-- William Butler Yeats |
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Sir David Attenborough's population warnings
