Prophecies of the recent past ...

[LWW]

If only we had all listened to them then ... think how screwed up things would be by now? (http://home.hiwaay.net/~craigg/g4c/economist-Doom.htm)

[ QUOTE ]
"American oil reserves will last ten years"
-US Bureau of Mines 1914-<hr /></blockquote>

[ QUOTE ]
"American oil reserves will last thirteen years"
-US Dept of Interior 1939-<hr /></blockquote>

[ QUOTE ]
"American oil reserves will last thirteen years"
-US Dept of Interior 1951-<hr /></blockquote>

[ QUOTE ]
"Agricultural experts state that a tripling of the food supply of the world will be necessary in the next 30 years or so, if the 6 or 7 billion people who may be alive in the year 2000 are to be adequately fed. Theoretically such an increase might be possible, but it is becoming increasingly clear that it is totally impossible in practice. The battle to feed humanity is over. In the 1970s the world will undergo famines -- hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death."
-Paul Ehrlich 1970-<hr /></blockquote>

[ QUOTE ]
"Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the cooling trend . . . But they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century."
-Newsweek 1975-<hr /></blockquote>

[ QUOTE ]
"We could use up all of the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade"
-President Jimmy Carter 1977-<hr /></blockquote>

[ QUOTE ]
"Scientists concluded -- almost unanimously -- that global warming is real and the time to act is now."
-Al Gore 1992-<hr /></blockquote>

[ QUOTE ]
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and hence clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
-H L Mencken-<hr /></blockquote>

Let the excuses begin.

LWW

[bsmutz]

I find this a very narrow minded view on your part. How do you know what things would be like if the world had listened to these people and done something to change the status quo? I can think of all kinds of rosy scenarios that may have come to pass. Why does the alternative to your way of thinking always have to be doom and gloom or wrong/stupid? That's what I would be trying to fix if I were you.

[LWW]

Study history my friend.

Go back and read the suggestions that were made at the time, such as dumping soot and coal on the Earth's poles to collect more solar heat and keep us all warm.

LWW

[bsmutz]

Yeah, like that's the only one. I believe Buckminster Fuller was around during the years when most of those predictions were made. He certainly had some ideas that I feel should have been looked at a little more closely for the betterment of mankind. I am equally sure that there were others without having to "go back" and look.