Dakota Beacon

Paul R. Ehrlich. Name ring a bell? He is an American biologist who’s 1968 doomsday book “The Population Bomb” sent the journalistic world all atwitter. “In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death…” Not since Thomas R. Malthus (1766-1834) predicted dire consequences for the world’s population has such scaremongering proliferated. Much of his book speaks of the environment. No surprise that writing the book was encouraged by David Brower of the Sierra Club. It fits.

This started the apocalyptic climate boogeyman. For 50 years a never-ending stream of doom-mongering climate madness has been foisted on Americans. And for 50 years the cause is always American capitalism; the solution is always socialism and population control. Yet, the predicted doom ever happened.

Sample the news over the decades. “Paul Ehrlich said the ‘time of famines’ is upon us and will be its worst and most disastrous by 1975.” -- The Salt Lake [UT] Tribune, 11/17/67

            “We must realize that unless we are extremely lucky, everybody will disappear in a cloud of blue steam in 20 years.” – Paul Ehrlich, The New York Times, 8/10/69

            “In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution.” – Life magazine, January 1970

            “U.S. Scientist Sees New Ice Age Coming,” The Washington Post, 7/9/71

            “Scientists figure that only a 1 percent decrease in the amount of sunlight hitting the earth’s surface could tilt the climatic balance and cool the planet enough to send it sliding down the road to another ice age within only a few hundred years.” – Time magazine, “Another Ice Age?” 6/24/74

            “International Team of Specialists Finds No End in Sight to 30-Year Cooling Trend in Northern Hemisphere.” – The New York Times, 1/5/78

            Global cooling did not sway the American public. Try scaring people with global warming.

            “Prepare for long, hot summers…during the 90s…If we do nothing to cut down on pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere…the maximum strength of hurricanes may increase by 50%...” – Gannett News Service, 12/12/88

            “A senior UN environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000.” – AP, 6/30/89

            “Global warming requires an international solution. Make no mistake. The problem is real. And if we do not change our course now the consequences, sooner or later, will be destructive for America and the world.” – Bill Clinton, CNN, 10/22/97

            “Just 96 months to save world, says Prince Charles: The price of capitalism and consumerism is just too high…” – The [UK] Independent, 10/23/11

            “U.S. Navy Predicts Summer Ice Free Arctic by 2016.” – The [UK] Guardian, 121/9/13

            “Mayors from…the United States, Europe, and Asia will…sign a declaration stating that the Paris summit ‘may be the last effective opportunity to negotiate arrangements that keep human-induce warming below 2 degrees centigrade.’” – Reuters, 7/21/15

Global warming and the predicted disasters failed. Morph the scam into climate change.

            “The World Has Just Over a Decade to Get Climate Change Under Control, UN Scientists Say.” – The Washington Post, 10/7/18

            “Ocasio-Cortez: ‘World will End in 12 years’ If Climate Change Not Addressed.” – The Hill, 1/22/19

            “We don’t have decades. What the scientists are telling us, if we don’t get our act together within the next eight or nine years, we’re talking about cities all over the world, major cities going underwater.” – Sen. Bernie Sanders, Democrat debate, 11/20/19

Americans still were not convinced. Call it a crisis. Never let a crisis go to waste.

            “The clock reveals how little time we have left to tackle the climate crisis before the planet is past a tipping point. That number is 7 years, 98 days, 15 hours…and counting.” – The [UK] Independent, 9/24/20

            “The scientists told us three years ago that we had 12 years to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis. We are now three years gone, so we have nine years left.” – John Kerry, Biden’s special envoy for climate, CBS This Morning, 2/19/21

            “It’s getting more likely the world will reach a climate tipping point in the next five years.” – CNN, 5/27/21

            “Democrats Have a Year to Save the Planet.” – The New York Times, 6/30/21

            “We can’t wait any longer to deal with climate crisis; we see with our own eyes.” – Joe Biden, quoted at Axios, 7/7/21

See the pattern? None of the dire predictions have come to pass. Stupid is as stupid does. So, which is it? Global warming -- or global cooling – or climate crisis? Or are they the same old hysteria-stoking scare tactics used to advance a Democrat Socialist agenda through fear and manipulation. Any which way it is hogwash.

Just call it “weather” and leave mankind out of it.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).