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| HT: Mark Perry |
“Air pollution is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone,” Paul Ehrlich in an interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970. Ehrlich also predicted that in 1973, 200,000 Americans would die from air pollution, and that by 1980 the life expectancy of Americans would be 42 years. (Currently we are at 77.8 years)
“By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half...” Life magazine, January 1970.
Most Earth Day predictions turned out to be stunningly wrong. In 1970, environmentalists predicted a new ice age and massive deaths from air pollution. The New York Times foresaw the extinction of the human race. Widely-quoted biologist Paul Ehrlich predicted worldwide starvation by 1975. Consider that since 1970, the U.S. population has increased by 50.25%, miles driven has increased by 159% and real gross domestic product has increased 203%; yet air quality is better than ever.
