Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Earth Day 1970 Predictions

Here are some of the predictions made on Earth Day 1970...

Ø “Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.” George Wald, Harvard Biologist.

Ø “Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

Ø  “Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: 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.”
• Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University

Ø “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….”
• Life Magazine, January 1970

Ø  “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.”
• Sen. Gaylord Nelson

Ø “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.”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

Wisdom from the Fella... Despite all of the above, I am still a strong supporter of Earth Day because it is the only planet known to have Cannoli.

 

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Would I kid u?

Smartfella

Lagniappe: Continuing Your Education... Until I did research for this Foolishness I thought “Cannoli” was singular & I never gave a second thought as to what the plural was. “Cannolo” is the singular & “Cannoli” is the plural. This tidbit of info makes the last sentence of the blog above grammatically correct.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Fella..... Gave me a good laugh!!!

Anonymous said...

I remember some of them.
I think one of the cold guys is now a global warmer.
I never knew there was a word for a single cannoli as I never saw one because they are so great so why you would ever have just one unless it was the last one.
When I saw the plate I missed Carrollton Avenue.

Anonymous said...

Well, I guess science is settled then. We are all dead.

Lex Ortolano said...

The secret of successful forecasting is to identify just one variable to forecast and then to estimate everything else based on that forecast. If SmartFella thinks that the correct variable to choose is cannoli sales, I'm sure there is a professor or two out there who will support him.