RELAX: Climate predictions are wildly wrong and probably always will be

Scare tactics used by the Global Warmists, including threats to jail anyone who does not agree with them, are simply a function of jealousy and what the Aussies would call, “the tallest poppy syndrome.”

Since climate activists seem unwilling to get a job and to, instead, spend their days protesting, I can only conclude that they are jealous of what the rest of have and therefore want to dismantle a system that allowed us to enjoy what Plato called “the good life.”

Put even more succinctly, “Global Warming is the biggest power grab in history.”  Notice how very few of them work locally to ensure that their own backyards are clean and neat and “Eco-friendly,” choosing instead to jet around the world protesting all that we have and which demonstrably has made their lives possible.

We have been here before. It is worth recounting the many times these people and their predecessors have conjured up visions of a dead planet.

Recently, The Competitive Enterprise Institute published, “Wrong Again: 50 Years of Failed Eco-Apocalyptic Predictions.” Such spectacularly wrong predictions were made by respected scientists and government officials. Their answer then, and the Warmist’s answer for today, is to raise taxes, imposes more governmental restrictions, and to form ever more powerful institutions at the global level.

I guess we were lucky:

Stanford University biologist Dr. Paul Erhlich warned in 1969: “The trouble with almost all environmental problems is that by the time we have enough evidence to convince people, you’re dead. We must realize that unless we’re extremely lucky, everybody will disappear in a cloud of blue steam in 20 years.” 1989 came and went and we are still here.

It is snowing hard this morning in Wyoming, yet…

In 2000, Dr. David Viner, a British research scientist predicted that, “in a few years winter snowfall would become a very rare and exciting event. Children just aren’t going to know what snow is.” Children are in my front yard this morning throwing snowballs.

Put away your snorkels …

In 2004, the U.S. Pentagon warned that “major European cities would soon be beneath rising seas and that Britain will be plunged into a Siberian climate by 2020.” They aren’t breathing water and Britain, as it will always be, is still there.

Like James Bond, I will take my predictions (like my Scotch), “on the rocks” …

In 2008, Al Gore predicted that “the polar ice cap will be gone in a mere 10 years. Piling on, the USA’s Department of Energy said that the “Arctic Ocean would experience an ice-free summer by 2016.” Nope. Didn’t happen. Still lots of ice for my Scotch.

Chaos is as chaos does …

In May 2014, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius declared during a joint appearance with Secretary of State John Kerry that “we have 500 days to avoid climate chaos.” 500 days. That’s about a year and a half. 2014, 2015 and part of 2016, came and went and the chaos didn’t materialize. Kerry and his ilk still own private jets.

Not only are we still here, but we are fatter and flabbier than ever…

In 1970, Peter Gunter, a professor at North Texas State University, predicted that, “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.” They aren’t, we aren’t, and the world enjoys solid productions of food.

The sky is falling, the sky is falling!

Kenneth Watt’s 1970 prediction was, “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.” 2000 came and went and, well, you are beginning to understand what I mean. So much for “no more snow.”

Such predictions of the weather (remember that our weather bureau has a tough time predicting the weather for tomorrow, let alone 20 years from now) also required the concomitant predictions of what we won’t have in order to stay alive. Take for example…

Harrison Brown, a scientist at the National Academy of Sciences, published a chart in Scientific American that looked at metal reserves and estimated that humanity would run out of copper shortly after 2000. Lead, zinc, tin, gold and silver would be gone before 1990. Kenneth Watt said, “By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate … that there won’t be any more crude oil.” Today, reserves of oil have never been higher.

This is nothing new …

• In 1939, the U.S. Department of the Interior predicted that American oil supplies would last for only another 13 years.
• In 1949, the secretary of the interior said the end of U.S. oil supplies was in sight.
• In 1974, the U.S. Geological Survey said that the U.S. had only a 10-year supply of natural gas.

As of Jan. 1, 2017, there were about 2,459 trillion cubic feet of dry natural gas in the United States. That’s enough to last us for nearly a century. The United States is the largest producer of natural gas worldwide.

Bottom line? You can relax. Today’s wild predictions about climate doom are likely to be just as bad as yesteryear’s.