Friday, October 26, 2007
Crying wolf on the environment
The United Nations has issued a report that says that humanity is stressing the world's environment to the breaking point:
The human population is living far beyond its means and inflicting damage on the environment that could pass points of no return, according to a major report issued Thursday by the United Nations.
Climate change, the rate of extinction of species and the challenge of feeding a growing population are among the threats putting humanity at risk, the UN Environment Program said in its fourth Global Environmental Outlook since 1997.
The problem, of course, is that we have all heard this many times before. I read both The Population Bomb and the Club of Rome Report on the Limits of Growth back in junior high school (does that really surprise you?). Both were received wisdom in the day, assigned in schools and highly influential in shaping media coverage, and both were -- thankfully -- almost completely wrong. One of the reasons why today's environmentalists have such a tough time getting traction with Americans of a certain age is that we all remember the global economic and environmental catastrophe that was supposed to engulf us around 1990.
On the other hand, the boy who cried wolf eventually told the truth.
MORE: The Times of London headlines the story "'Humanity's very survival' is at risk, says UN". This is idiotic. Humanity is the most adaptable species on the planet as evidenced by its ability to survive on all continents, underneath the seas and even off the planet entirely. Rapid climate change will cause the early demise of some humans, and it almost certainly will kill off countless species of plants and animals which will damage us economically and hurt us spiritually. But it does not threaten "humanity's very survival," and to say so undermines the credibility of the entire undertaking.
12 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Oct 26, 10:40:00 AM:
More bull kaka from the evil UN its has less to do with saving the enviroment and a lot to do with controling our lives its just a excuses for a one world new age religion of the gaia worshipers and the one world goverment run by the evil and sinister UN
By 
GreenmanTim, at
Fri Oct 26, 10:44:00 AM:
From the last paragraph in the IHT story to which you linked:
"Many biologists and climate scientists have concluded that human activities have become a dominant influence on the planet's climate and ecosystems. But there is still a range of views on whether this could result in a catastrophic unraveling of natural resources as the human population heads toward nine billion by midcentury, or more of a steady diminution in diversity."
What neither scientific group denies is that change is occurring and extinction rates today are as great as 100 times above the background rate. Maybe not our species (though it did apparently go through a bottleneck 74,000 years ago that reduced homo sapiens to perhaps 2,000 individuals rangewide).
By , at
Fri Oct 26, 11:00:00 AM:
Does the report mention Soylent Green? :)
Seriously, there are parts of the world that are under tremendous stress from the human population and "humanaforming" of planet Earth.
Parts of China and India (but that's been true for all of the 20th century)
The Sea of Azov
Several important feshwater-saltwater estuaries
Amazon river basin?
These are only silly guesses by a poorly informed layman, but I would guess that I'm not far off.
But the answer is for the human race as a whole (and individual nations) to become WEALTHIER so that they can afford to fix their environmental problems, and set aside problematical wildlife areas to preserve habitat.
Lake Erie is in much better shape today than 40 years ago, and that's the consequence of two "wealthy" nations (Canada and the US) having the resources to fix the problems.
-David
By , at
Fri Oct 26, 11:28:00 AM:
If developing nations were to meet the same standards that developed nations have to meet environmental stress would be minimal. The reason we don't is because eggheads have decided that developing nations don't have to meet those standards.
Those eggheads then can issue decrees that the world is stressed and we in the developed nations have to reduce our life style to allow others to increase theirs. This is just backwards thinking.
By AmPowerBlog, at
Fri Oct 26, 01:04:00 PM:
My international relations textbook, thankfully, reviews the old literature like "The Population Bomb" and "Club of Rome," then contrasts those views with the work of environmental optimists.
Left-wing enviro-ideology is really a religion. Look how Gore's been resurrected...
By AstroJew, at
Fri Oct 26, 05:39:00 PM:
Still, I won't say that's a reason not to be careful with it....
By Georg Felis, at
Fri Oct 26, 05:47:00 PM:
You forgot the panic of the Y2K gloom and doomers. I remember quite well ringing in the New Year 2000 with the rest of the tech geeks from work, watching the tube and the horribly disapointed TV nitwits.
By Purple Avenger, at
Fri Oct 26, 06:30:00 PM:
Does this mean fallout shelter type things stocked for 20 years worth will be back in vogue again?
I want those contracts!
By , at
Fri Oct 26, 06:53:00 PM:
Careful!
This is the "final wake-up call!", metaphorically speaking.
If we try to hit the metaphorical "snooze" button, who knows how bad it could get?!
I foresee much wringing of hands at the UN in the next four years, with President Hillary joining in and willing to cede substantive parts of US sovereignty in the name of "global co-operation" and "repairing our image", and similar boilerplate.
It's all about "saving humanity!" and of course it's "for the children".
The opening trumpet call of the "War on Global Warming!" are about to be sounded. If you liked the "War on Poverty", the "War on Drugs", etc., you'll love this episode of forced collectivism and a dimunition of individual rights.
-David
By davod, at
Fri Oct 26, 07:27:00 PM:
The best thing about the Y2K crisis was that all those programmers and systems analysts who were sacked years ago were remployed on obscene wages to go through all the code.
By , at
Sat Oct 27, 12:49:00 AM:
Is the UN crooks suggesting that the world will look like it did in that stupid movie WATERWORLD where we get to see KEVIN KOSNER swin about like a complete dork
By , at
Sat Oct 27, 03:45:00 PM:
Chicken Little could,nt hold a candle to these eco-wackos and their bull kaka their blabbering
