Forty-two U.S. states
adopted resolutions
endorsing Earth
Day 1970.
At the time,
Earth Day 1970
was the
largest public
"demonstration "
in history.
The day featured
scary predictions
about the future.
WHAT ACTUALLY
HAPPENED
FROM 1970 to 2020 ?
On the first
Earth Day,
in 1970,
there were
3.7 billion people
on Earth; which
has since doubled
to 7.6 billion.
World population doubled,
but famines did not occur,
as had been predicted
in 1970.
The global fertility rate
in 1970 was 4.8 children
per woman; it has now half:
2.4 children per woman.
In 83 countries,
including the U.S.,
which add up to half
the world's population,
fertility is below the
replacement rate of
2.1 children per woman.
World food production
more than tripled,
with average per-capita
calories supplied rising
from about 2,400, to
nearly 3,000 per day.
U.S., corn yields since 1970
rose from about 60 bushels
per acre, to nearly 170 bushels
now.
The world did not run out of
copper, lead, zinc, tin, gold,
silver, and especially oil.
Since 1970,
EPA data shows
that as U.S. Gross
Domestic Product grew
nearly 275%,
vehicle miles
traveled grew 191%,
population grew 60%, and
energy consumption
grew 49%,
... the aggregate
emissions of six
key regulated
air pollutants
declined 74%.
Today over 92%
of community water
systems meet all
health-based
standards,
24 hours a day,
365 days a year.
In 1970, over 40% of the
nation’s drinking water
systems failed to meet
basic health standards.
The amount of CO2 in the
GLOBAL atmosphere
has increased by 25%,
from 328 parts per million
in April 1970, to 410 ppm.
But U.S. carbon dioxide
emissions declined
20% since 2007.
Environmental
doom and gloom
stories still
get headlines
in newspapers,
magazines,
and on TV.
The truth is the U.S.
environment has
been improving.
Dire prophecies,
of the first Earth Day,
have been mostly
proven wrong.
Environmentalism
used to focus on
real pollution.
Environmentalism
was a successful
social movement
in modern history.
Until the late 1980s,
when the focus
was almost entirely
shifted to the staff
of life on Earth,
which is NOT
a pollutant
-- carbon dioxide.
Environmentalists
do not seem happy
to hear about all the
U.S. environmental
improvements
since 1970.
They still oppose
economic growth,
and celebrate how
COVID-19 lockdowns
lowered growth, and
pollution.
But "prophets" of
an always-coming
catastrophe were
never discredited.
Scary predictions
that never came true
were forgotten
(except here).
That allows the new
scary predictions
to be believed.
For environmentalists,
it seems that a belief
in the end of the world,
from whatever
environmental crisis
is popular at the moment,
is a primary source
of their happiness !