Never-Ending Wrong Doomsday Predictions

Humanity has only a few years to act before the world may irreversibly plunge into an environmental catastrophe of global proportions, climate experts warned in a recent report. Their calls are muffled, however, by dozens of past dramatic predictions that have failed to pan out. ⁽¹⁾

The apocalypse is tomorrow, and if not the day after will do. Declarations of the world's demise are a dime a dozen, the fare of dignitaries, politicians, scientists, and celebs. The end is nigh--and getting higher. ⁽²⁾

Predictions from the first earth day 50 years ago

Here are some of the predictions made during the first earth day 50 years ago ⁽³⁾:

• Harvard biologist George Wald estimated that 'civilization will end with 15 or 30 years by 1985 or 2000 unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.
• "Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make" said Paul Ehrlich. "The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years (by 1980)."
• In January 1970, Life reported "Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support this 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 declared, "By the year 2000 if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate tht there won't be any more crude oil." Not so! Global oil production in 2021 was about 95M barrels per day (bpd). This was double the global oil output of 48 bpd around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970.

John Kerry, climate czar, said that many countries of the globe, including the Arctic, the Antarctic and the world's coral reefs, have already reached a tipping point that is irreversible

In the following years others joined the fray: Al Gore, Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN Climate Panel, Tim Flannery, Ted Turner, James Hansen and Prince (now King) Charles to mention a few.

In 2006 Al Gore predicted that unless drastic measures were implemented, the planet would hit an irreversible point of no return by 2016. Game over. ⁽²⁾

Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN Climate Panel, one-upped Gore in 2007, insisting 2012 was irreversible."If there is no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment."

In January 2019, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put her chips on 2031 as the potential end of days. In June 2019, then presidential candidate Joe Biden threw his support behind Ocasio-Cortez's dozen year projection. "Science tells us that how we act or fail to act in the next 12 years will determine the very livability of our planet."

In step with near annual UN declarations from the past 50 years, Secretary General Guterres once again sounded the alarm: "The climate time bomb is ticking."

John Kerry, Biden's former climate czar, said that many countries of the globe, including the Arctic, the Antarctic and the world's coral reefs, have already reached a tipping point that is irreversible. ⁽⁴⁾

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John Kerry, how did you ever get to a tipping point that's irreversible for the Arctic, Antarctic and coral reefs?

In the Arctic, polar ice has remained steady for the last decades. ⁽⁵⁾

Arctic summer minimum sea ice extent refuses to drop further, surprising and frustrating the alarmist media. This means we have now had 17 years of near-zero trend for September sea ice. This surely burst a huge hole in the prevailing concept that more atmospheric CO2 causes less summer sea ice. ⁽⁶⁾

The continent of Antarctic is a difficult hunting ground for climate apocalypse fanatics since there has been barely any overall warming over the last 70 years, The exception is West Antarctic where there has been some local climate variation, possibly helped by significant geothermal activity. Of course, this is enough for a scare or two while clearly not mentioning the geothermal activity. ⁽⁷⁾

In spite of continued reports of collapsing Antarctic ice shelves, four new studies in prestigious journals show Antarctic ice shelves as stable as ever. ⁽⁸⁾

The annual data on coral reef cover showed the amount of coral on the reef is at record high levels. ⁽⁹⁾

So the question for Kerry is--how did you ever get to a tipping point that's irreversible for the Arctic, Antarctic and coral reefs?

There will be a disproportionately influential group of doomsters predicting that the future, and the present, never looked so bleak

Here's a recent example of a climate doomsday prediction that has failed to materialize. In August of 2005, the ever alarmed Guardian posted this story:

"Warming hits tipping point. Siberia feels the heat, it's a frozen peat bog the size of France and Germany combined, contains billions of tons of greenhouse gas and for the first time since the ice age, it is melting. If we don't take action very soon, we could unleash runaway global warming that will be beyond our control and it will lead to social, economic, and environmental devastation." ⁽¹⁰⁾

The extended warming and melting just isn't happening. While the researchers sounded alarm over a warm summer in Siberia in 2005, the past year has been completely the opposite. For example, from The Washington Post: "Siberia sees coldest air in two decades as temperature dips to minus 80." Or another post: "Russia reels from -60 C cold blast. And Munich breaks December snow record."

The take-away from all this: There will be a disproportionately influential group of doomsters predicting that the future, and the present, never looked so bleak. In other words, the hype, hysteria, and spectacularly wrong apocalyptic predictions will continue, promoted by virtue signaling environmental grievance hustlers.

References

1. 1. Petr Svab, "Failed doom forecasts destroy alarmists credibility," principia-scientific.com, January 2, 2024
2. 2. Chris Bennett, "Doomsday addiction: celebrating 50 years of failed climate predictions," agweb.com,May 2, 2023
3. 3. Mark J. Perry, "18 spectacularly wrong predictions were made around the time of the first earth day in 1980, expect more this year," aei.org, April 21, 2022
4. 4. Sharon Udasin, "Kerry says rest of world doomed unless 20 nations take climate action," thehill.com, September 8, 2021
5. 5. Joanne Nova, "Climate change in Greenland means Greenland is the same temperature now as 1880," joannenova.com.au, April 19 2018
6. 6. P. Gosselin, "Arctic refuses to melt. German scientists blame unusual weather phenomenon," notrickszone.com, September 26, 2023
7. 7. Chris Morrison, "West Antarctic temperature falls 2 C in 20 years," dailysceptic.org, November 17, 2023
8. P. Gosselin, "Collapsing Antarctic scare narrative: 4 new papers find Antarctic ice is more stable than thought," notrickszone.com, January 3, 2023
9. Peter Ridd, "Record coral cover the Great Barrier Reef shames climate alarmists, media," wattsupwiththat.com, July 23, 2021
10. Anthony Watts, "Whatever happened to the Siberian permafrost tipping point from 2005?", wattsupwiththat December 14, 2023

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