Thursday, July 2, 2015

Quacks And Charlestons Make Doomsday Predictions. Remember Gores's Warning Of Melting Ice Flooding New York?


A couple of weeks ago, professor Frank Fenner, described dutifully by media accounts as an “eminent Australian scientist” who “helped wipe out smallpox,” announced the bad news – the human race would probably be extinct in less than 100 years.

Without much scientific evidence, Fenner cited the usual conventional reasons – “environmental destruction” and “climate change.”

That’s why his claims resonated so widely in the international press. These kinds of doomsday predictions have been made since the 1970s, though back then the world was going to freeze instead of overheat. The media love this stuff. You can’t say it sells papers anymore, but I guess it gets hits.
But it was another existential threat to mankind mentioned by Fenner that caught my attention.
If it wasn’t environmental degradation that did us in, or climate change, he had a backup plan for what would kill off all our descendants in the next century – overpopulation.

When I saw the story, I thought: “Now I get it. This is a joke. Dr. Fenner is having fun with us all. All of humanity is going to die because there are too many of us. Don’t you see? He’s pulling our collective legs.”

Upon further investigation, I found that was not the case.
He was serious – dead serious.
He’s not exactly sure what’s going to kill off all humanity within 100 years, but he’s positive it’s coming as a result of one thing or another.
This is science?


It reminds me of an old Yogi Berra aphorism. He and a friend were debating where to go for dinner, when the friend made a suggestion: “Nah,” Yogi said, “nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.”

That’s pretty much what this “eminent scientist” had said, but he was taken seriously by the world’s media.
“Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.”
“Humanity will be extinct in 100 years because of overcrowding.”
Do you see the parallel?

Actually, there’s a tad more sense to Yogi’s statement, because we know what he means: What he probably meant was people he would like to see at this eating establishment – maybe friends like Mickey Mantle or Whitey Ford or Roger Maris – don’t go there anymore because it’s too crowded. He didn’t say it, but that’s what he likely meant.

What, on the other hand, did professor Fenner mean when he said the human race would be extinct in 100 years, possibly from overcrowding?
Beats me.
When he said the human race would be extinct did he really mean he and his friends wouldn’t be around any longer?

No, what he meant was that populations all over the planet would explode to the point at which they would consume all of the natural resources at once and … poof! Everyone would die like the one-time inhabitants of Easter Island.

Yet, that’s not very scientific, because Easter Island was … well … an island. There was no place for the inhabitants to go. But Earth is a pretty big island. What would be the explanation for overpopulation killing off everyone in disparate climates with different environments and a variety of fauna and flora?

He didn’t elaborate. He was probably too busy building his spaceship or underground bunker – or perhaps picking up his government paycheck for keeping the population ready to accept any dire requirement of their masters – including the abdication of liberty and the renouncing of prosperity.
Why do we listen to these failed prophets of doom?

And what impact is it having on people – long-term – to be bombarded constantly with pseudo-scientific apocalypticism of this kind?

You would think, by now, their track record would have reduced their credibility below the ranking of televangelists. But still they say these things. Some people believe them. Governments support them. If you question them, you will be called a “denier.”

George Orwell knew something about that.
And so did Yogi. He was smart enough to know if a place was crowded, people would stop going there.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/07/scientists-extinction-draweth-nigh/#3cQsDqrbzgXXBLEu.99

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