By Laura Huggins
Some climate scientists and environmental activists might have you thinking we are living in the Time of the End. But be leery of false prophecies. Fox News explores the track record of those most worried about global warming in Eight Botched Environmental Forecasts?
Here is number 7, which New Scientist magazine wrote about in an editorial titled “In Praise of Prophets.”
By the year 2000 the United Kingdom will be simply a small group of impoverished islands, inhabited by some 70 million hungry people … If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000. Paul Ehrlich, Speech at British Institute For Biology, September 1971.
Ehrlich’s response to Fox News is even more surprising.
When you predict the future, you get things wrong,” Ehrlich admitted, but “how wrong is another question. I would have lost if I had taken the bet. However, if you look closely at England, what can I tell you? They’re having all kinds of problems, just like everybody else.
Matt Ridley was quick to point out “all kinds of problems” in Britain, compared with 1971:
-GDP per capita has roughly doubled in real terms
-child mortality is down by three-quarters
-lifespan is up by eight years
-obesity is a bigger problem than hunger
-four times as many people go to university
-people take seven times as many foreign holidays
-twice as many people have a car
-otters and ospreys are far more numerous
-air pollution is much decreased
-beaches and rivers are cleaner
-the internet exists