Gaia Day

In 1798, Thomas Malthus proposed that population growth would eventually outpace agricultural production and result in famine.  At the time he proposed this, the population of the world was around 1 billion people.  Today, the population is in excess of 7 billion.

 

In 1968, Paul Ehrlich wrote The Population Bomb in which he warned that mass starvation was just around the corner on account of overpopulation.  At the time, the world population was around 3.5 billion.  In 1990, he wrote a sequel called The Population Explosion in which he called for controls on population.  At the time, the world population was just over 5 billion.  In 1994, he offered an ideal population of the earth, targeting between 1.5 and 2 billion people.  Of course, the population was nearly 6 billion by then.

 

On this day in 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated.  Mother Earth was in trouble because of the pollution of mankind.  Prophecies of doom were provided.  Some of the most extreme can be found here.  Mass starvation and an ice age caused by polluting smoke stacks were inevitable by the 1980s.  The soil would become incapable of growing anything, the sky would darken to where only half as much sunlight could filter through, and humanity might be at risk of extinction.  These apocalyptic predictions are laughable today but somehow don't reflect negatively on the equally apocalyptic modern claims.

 

When Apocalypticism is espoused by religious cranks like Harold Camping or ancient Central American calendars, the claims are viewed with appropriate skepticism.  When 'scientists' make such claims, skepticism is suddenly painted as denial.  Despite having predictions of doom proved wrong time and again, the Earth Day Religion is still treated with more respect than its apocalyptic cousins.