Monday, April 25, 2011

If there's one thing you can count on year after year after year, it's that Radical Green Environmentalists are going to make ludicrous claims and predictions day after day after day.

To celebrate this remarkable consistency and Earth Day, we at GreenWatch have created a brand new game.  We call it "Know Your Radical Green Lunacy!"  We're sure it'll be all the rage at parties by year's end.

The rules are simple.  We have listed ten preposterous proclamations from Radical Greens:  five from the first Earth Day and five from the last decade.  You tell us:  Was it said in the 2000s or in 1970?  (Years mentioned in the quotes have been replaced by time-frame estimates to keep the mystery).

So let's play Know Your Radical Green Lunacy!:  

1. “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.”

2.  "Today we find a world of asymmetric development, unsustainable natural resource use, and continued rural and urban poverty. There is general agreement about the current global environmental and development crisis. It is also known that the consequences of these global changes have the most devastating impacts on the poorest, who historically have had limited entitlements and opportunities for growth."

3.  "...within a few years winter snowfall will become 'a very rare and exciting event.  Children just aren't going to know what snow is.'"

4. “Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”

5.  "The only way to prevent global ecological collapse and thus ensure the survival of humanity is to rid the world of Industrial Civilization...Unloading essentially means the removal of an existing burden: for instance, removing grazing domesticated animals, razing cities to the ground, blowing up dams and switching off the greenhouse gas emissions machine."

6. “Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…[in 15 years] air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….”

7.  "Hurricanes are predicted to grow stronger and more destructive...Droughts are getting longer and deeper in many mid-continent regions, even as the severity of flooding increases. The seasonal predictability of rainfall and temperatures is being disrupted, posing serious threats to agriculture. The rate of species extinction is accelerating to dangerous levels."

8.  “In 30 years, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate…that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say, `I am very sorry, there isn’t any.’”

9.  "We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great. The most relevant question now is whether our own government is equal to the challenge."

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

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Answer Key:
1.    1970
2.    2000s
3.    2000s
4.    1970
5.    2000s
6.    1970
7.    2000s
8.    1970
9.    2000s
10.  1970

Most Egregious Claim of the Week

Last week, Apple was named the "least green" technology company by Greenpeace, primarily due to its opening a new facility in coal-dependent North Carolina. 

Gary Cook, Greenpeace's IT policy analyst and lead author of the report "How Dirty is Your Data?" had this to say:

"Consumers want to know that when they upload a video or change their Facebook status that they are not contributing to global warming or future Fukushimas."

No, we're not sure how our previous purchases of a Macbook and iPhone contributed to a tsunami devastating a nuclear power plant in Japan.  All we know is that we are now seriously considering investing in an iPad.

-Patrick Gallagher, Editor