Junk Science and the Prophets of Doom: Consider the Source and Be Wary

Ted Turner of CNN, the true mouth of the South (and the North, and East and West) recently gave us his global warming prophecy of doom on the Charlie Rose show at PBS (where else?) where it, and he, were fawned over like a new-born baby .

The rant went something like this:

"We'll be eight degrees hotter in ten years---not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died, and the rest of us will be cannibals."

Speak for yourself, Ted, you ole cannibal you. Let's all mark our calendars and check this 'wisdomation' from Sir Ted in about 15-20 years when all his bison have frozen to death from a ten year cold weather front that set in right after he mouthed his prediction and followed it up with the resounding , "It's been a long time since anyone caught me saying anything stupid."

OK, Ted. Whatever you say.

But while this prophecy is still fresh in our minds and impossible to check out, let's put Ted's diatribe in perspective by revisiting some other so-called wise blasts from the past, forerunners of the Great Ted:

Nigel Calder, environmentalist at the First Earth Day celebration in 1969:

"The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind."

Harvard biologist George Wald in 1970:

"Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind."

Senator Gaylord Nelson founder of Earth Day said in 1970:

"By 1995 somewhere between 75% and 85% of all species of living animals will be extinct."

Paul Ehrlich, mentor and teacher to Al Gore, in 1968 blasted:

"..in the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death.....and if I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000."

And who can forget the first Club of Rome report, Limits to Growth, in 1972, that the world was doomed to run out of natural materials like gold, silver, copper, mercury, tin by 1987 and petroleum and natural gas by 1992.

All of this to say, the so called experts have been making these doomsday predictions forever. Ted can be added to this list of clowns. He's in good company, especially with them and the Folly Green Giant. You know who I'm talking about.