During the first great Earth Week in 1970 there was panic.
The public’s outlook for the planet was unrelievedly gloomy.
The doom saying environmentalists – of whom the dominant figure was Paul Ehrlich – raised the alarm: The oceans and the Great Lakes were dying; impending great famines would be seen on television starting in 1975; the death rate would quickly increase due to pollution; and rising prices of increasingly-scarce raw materials would lead to a reversal in the past centuries’ progress in the standard of living.
… On average, people throughout the world have been living longer and eating better than ever before.
Fewer people die of famine nowadays than in earlier centuries.
The real prices of food and of every other raw material are lower now than in earlier decades and centuries, indicating a trend of increased natural-resource availability rather than increased scarcity.
The major air and water pollutions in the advanced countries have been lessening rather than worsening.
Via Julian Simon memorial site
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