As I read this post about the “spectacularly wrong” predictions made on the first Earth Day, it occurred to me that there is one country in the world in which those predictions or something like them is coming true: China. For examnple this:
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….â€
is true or nearly true in China. The sunlight hasn’t been reduced by a half but it’s significant. And the pictures of China’s urban dwellers in face masks aren’t hard to find.
The moral of the story is that authoritarian government and industrialization make a very bad combination. There’s very little we can do about China now—that ship has sailed. I’ll only give the reminder I’ve given before: we can change our own behavior. Nobody is forcing us to purchase Chinese manufactured goods.
All that settled science……so little accuracy. Not to worry. The smartest president ever, and his Secretary of State, tell us the clock has finally run out. This time……for sure.
Look at the bright side. At least we are going to die from boiling oceans storming the shores and not freeze to death. Think of it as the mother of all hot tub parties. Party on Wayne….
Actually, I think my only choice is to buy manufactured goods from China or not buy manufactured goods at all.
I think there is a big difference of acceptance and implementation here in the U.S. between polluting the environment with chemicals and other toxins, versus laying all blame on climate changes to green house gases. The former is met by relatively minor equivocation, while the latter continues to generate credible oppositional science to the AGW theories, which seem so single-mindedly embedded in the heads of warmists .