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> try comparing environmental panics (historical and present) with religious ones. Care to name some examples? Because the past ones I can think of (acid rain,
by brazzy 13y ago
> try comparing environmental panics (historical and present) with religious ones.
Care to name some examples? Because the past ones I can think of (acid rain, ozone hole) do not fit the pattern AT ALL, they were well grounded in reality and abated because things were done that actually eliminated or mitigated the causes of the problem.
- kbutler 13y agoThe easiest, most clearly falsified example is probably Paul Ehrlich's alarmist population bomb. Already too late to avoid hundreds of millions of people dying from starvation in the 70s. Didn't happen. Food production increased. Later editions said 70s and 80s. Didn't happen, food production increased. Instead of backing off the catastrophic rhetoric, he increased it, and was ignored by the community. Oh, wait, no, he got a MacArthur genius grant... Peak oil (oh, we just mean "conventional oil"). Many resource exhaustion forecasts (it will happen, just wait). Mass species extinctions (it's happening! Dozens per day! Which species?) Each of these is based on an element of truth, extrapolated without allowing any mitigating factors, and published with forecasts of imminent doom. Declaring victory over the ozone hole appears premature. Nasa says current changes are driven by wind and temperature, not changes in chlorine levels. http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/new-results-from-inside-the-ozone-hole/#.U0jKh8vnaAg http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/new-results-from-inside-...