l****z
发帖数: 29846 | 1 Climate Change: The Single Greatest Misinformation Campaign in World History
April 24, 2015 - 11:16 AM
By Stephen Moore
Wednesday was Earth Day and to hear the experts like Usher and Al Gore tell
the story, the planet is in a miserable state. We’re running out of our
natural resources, we’re overpopulating the globe and running out of room,
the air that we breathe is becoming toxic, the oceans are rising and soon
major coastal cities will be underwater, and the Earth is, of course,
heating up, except when it is cooling down.
This is perhaps the single greatest misinformation campaign in world history
. Virtually none of these claims are even close to the truth—except for the
fact that our climate is always changing as it has for hundreds of
thousands of years.
Since the first Earth Day back in the 1970s, the environmentalists—those
who worship the creation rather than the Creator—have issued one false
prediction of Armageddon after another. Yet despite a batting average
approaching zero, the media and our schools keep parroting their declinism
as if they were oracles rather than proven shysters.
Here are the factual realities that we should be celebrating on Earth Day.
1) Natural resources are more abundant and affordable today than ever before
in history. Short-term (sometimes decades-long) volatility aside, the price
of most natural resources—from cocoa to cotton to coal—is cheaper today
in real terms than 50, 100, or 500 years ago. This has happened even as the
world’s population has nearly tripled. Technology has far outpaced
depletion of the Earth’s resources.
2) Energy—the master resource—is super abundant. Remember when people like
Paul Ehrlich nearly 50 years ago and Barack Obama just three years ago—
warned that we were running out of oil and gas. Today, thanks to the new age
of oil and gas, thanks to fracking, the United States has hundreds of years
of petroleum and an estimated 290 years of coal. Keep in mind, this may be
a low-ball estimate; since 2000, the Energy Information Administration’s
estimates of recoverable reserves have actually increased by more than 7
percent.
We’re not running out of energy, we are running into it.
Global Climate Change -- Melting Glacier
Scientific truth is the first casualty in ideological crusades like that of
climate change. (AP Photo/John McConnico)
3) Air and water. Since the late 1970s, pollutants in the air have plunged.
Lead pollution plunged by more than 90 percent, carbon monoxide and sulfur
dioxide by more than 50 percent, with ozone and nitrogen dioxide declining
as well. This means that emissions per capita have declined even as the
economy in terms of real GDP nearly tripled. By nearly every standard
measure it is much, much, much cleaner today in the United States than 50
and 100 years ago. The air is so clean now that the EPA worries about carbon
dioxide which isn’t even a pollutant. (And, by the way, carbon emissions
are falling too, thanks to fracking). One hundred years ago, about one in
four deaths in the U.S. was due to contaminants in drinking water. But from
1971-2002, fewer than three people per year in the U.S. were documented to
have died from water contamination.
4) There is no Malthusian nightmare of overpopulation. Birth rates have
fallen by about one-half around the world over the last 50 years. Developed
countries are having too few kids, not too many. Even with a population of 7
.3 billion people, average incomes, especially in poor countries, have
surged over the last 40 years. The number of people in abject poverty fell
by 1 billion from 1981 to 2011, even as global population increased by more
than 1.5 billion.
5) Global per capita food production is 40 percent higher today than as
recently as 1950. In most nations the nutrition problem today is obesity—
too many calories consumed—not hunger. The number of famines and related
deaths over the last 100 years has fallen in half. More than 12 million
lives on average were lost each decade from the 1920s-1960s to famine. Since
then, fewer than 4 million lives on average per decade were lost.
Tragically, these famines are often caused by political corruption—not
nature. Furthermore, the price of food has fallen steadily in the U.S.—and
most other nations steadily for 200 years.
6) The rate of death and physical destruction from natural disasters or
severe weather changes has plummeted over the last 50 to 100 years. Loss of
life from hurricanes, floods, heat, droughts, and so on is at or near record
lows. This is because we have much better advance warning systems, our
infrastructure is much more durable, and we have things like air
conditioning, to adapt to weather changes. We are constantly discovering new
ways to harness and even tame nature.
Earth Day should be a day of joy and celebration that life on this bountiful
planet is better than anytime in human history. The state of the planet has
never been in such fine shape by almost every objective measure. The
Chicken Littles are as wrong today as they were 50 years ago. This is very
good news for those who believe that one of our primary missions as human
beings is to make life better over time and to leave our planet better off
for future generations.
Happy Earth Day.
Stephen Moore, who formerly wrote on the economy and public policy for The
Wall Street Journal, is a distinguished visiting fellow for the Project for
Economic Growth at The Heritage Foundation. | a*******1
发帖数: 1554 | 2 石油、煤肯定越来越少的，这些都是不可再生的，只是技术好了可以挖得更深了，但再
深也不可能深得过地球吧？
臭氧稀薄他咋没说？
环保主义者完全可以说正是因为我们40多年的努力所以才让环境变得这么好。50年前没
有环保主义者的时候环境不知多差。 | p**j
发帖数: 7063 | 3 麻烦有点逻辑，你说的这些都跟全球变暖没有一毛钱的关系。要是以这种逻辑做科学研
究，不出大事才奇怪。
【在 a*******1 的大作中提到】
: 石油、煤肯定越来越少的，这些都是不可再生的，只是技术好了可以挖得更深了，但再
: 深也不可能深得过地球吧？
: 臭氧稀薄他咋没说？
: 环保主义者完全可以说正是因为我们40多年的努力所以才让环境变得这么好。50年前没
: 有环保主义者的时候环境不知多差。
| a*******1
发帖数: 1554 | 4 The state of the planet has never been in such fine shape by almost every
objective measure.
这篇文章讨论的范围远远超出全球变暖，它是全盘否定环保工作的意义，我只是顺着他
的意思说。既然他讨论的范围是全部环保的的议题，我的质疑肯定是合理的。
显然你只看了标题，没读文章。我好歹认真读了。
【在 p**j 的大作中提到】
: 麻烦有点逻辑，你说的这些都跟全球变暖没有一毛钱的关系。要是以这种逻辑做科学研
: 究，不出大事才奇怪。
| f******k
发帖数: 5329 | 5 没有看完，前面几段说因为资源越来越便宜了，石油开采量越来越大了，所以结论是资
源没有衰竭。这个完全没有说服力呀。 | p**j
发帖数: 7063 | 6 如果一个资源虽然不能再生，但是有几千年可以用，可以叫资源枯竭了吗？那么如果是
几百年呢？
【在 f******k 的大作中提到】
: 没有看完，前面几段说因为资源越来越便宜了，石油开采量越来越大了，所以结论是资
: 源没有衰竭。这个完全没有说服力呀。
| c****p
发帖数: 6474 | 7 这篇文章里面讲到全球暖化的事情了么？
History
tell
,
【在 l****z 的大作中提到】
: Climate Change: The Single Greatest Misinformation Campaign in World History
: April 24, 2015 - 11:16 AM
: By Stephen Moore
: Wednesday was Earth Day and to hear the experts like Usher and Al Gore tell
: the story, the planet is in a miserable state. We’re running out of our
: natural resources, we’re overpopulating the globe and running out of room,
: the air that we breathe is becoming toxic, the oceans are rising and soon
: major coastal cities will be underwater, and the Earth is, of course,
: heating up, except when it is cooling down.
: This is perhaps the single greatest misinformation campaign in world history
| s*m
发帖数: 6980 | |
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