(RightWing.org) – No matter what the cause might be, climate change is a reality. If you walk to your window or step outside, you can observe it in real-time. Nevertheless, some extremists like to put too much into the idea — to the extent they resort to fearmongering to try to get others to adopt their perspective. A perfect case in point is a so-called insider who predicted a global catastrophe if the world’s nations didn’t address global warming by 2000.
The Exposé recently published a report detailing an article published by The Associated Press in 1989. The article detailed the claim from a “senior” United Nations environmental official that “entire nations could be wiped off the face of the earth” unless the “global warming trend” was reversed by 2000. As it turned out, that information was false.
A decade later, Snopes investigated the claim and determined that the AP’s source was Noel Brown — a UN Environmental Program regional director at the time. However — and it’s a big however — he wasn’t a climate scientist. Snopes also determined that Brown’s prediction “did not represent a consensus view at the time,” with data contained in “governmental studies.”
Put another way, Snopes determined Brown was too liberal with the facts and didn’t accurately represent the truth. [Feel free to insert whatever euphemism you like.]
Sadly, Brown — unknowingly aided and abetted by the AP — isn’t the only alarmist to make unfounded claims or ones that didn’t pan out. For example, Life Magazine celebrated the first Earth Day in 1970 by predicting that urban dwellers would need to wear gas masks by the conclusion of the 1980s due to rising air pollution.
Likewise, in 2007, former Vice President Al Gore predicted the Arctic would be ice-free by 2013 due to rising sea levels caused by climate change. Seventeen years later, the sea levels rose, and the Arctic’s ice levels decreased, but there’s plenty of ice left. [We’ll be nice and not mention that he also took credit for taking the “initiative in creating the internet” during his time as a US Representative.]
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