Earth Day predictions of 1970. The reason you shouldn’t believe Earth Day predictions of 2009.

Earth Day predictions of 1970. The reason you shouldn’t believe Earth Day predictions of 2009.

April 22, 2009, 4:00 am

Earth Day is past now, but this article is so popular we’re pinning it at the top of the home page today so everyone looking for it can find it.

Luckily, we haven’t run out of oil, but have exhausted our supply of 70s fashion.

Luckily, we haven’t run out of oil, but we have exhausted our supply of 70s fashion.

For the next 24 hours, the media will assault us with tales of imminent disaster that always accompany the annual Earth Day Doom & Gloom Extravaganza.

Ignore them. They’ll be wrong. We’re confident in saying that because they’ve always been wrong. And always will be.

Need proof? Here are some of the hilarious, spectacularly wrong predictions made on the occasion of Earth Day 1970.

“We have about five more years at the outside to do something.”
• Kenneth Watt, ecologist

“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
• George Wald, Harvard Biologist

“We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.”
• Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist

“Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.”
• New York Times editorial, the day after the first Earth Day

“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation,”
• Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day

“Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
• Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University

“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…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….”
• Life Magazine, January 1970

“At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it’s only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

Stanford’s Paul Ehrlich announces that the sky is falling.

Stanford’s Paul Ehrlich announces that the sky is falling.
“Air pollution…is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“We are prospecting for the very last of our resources and using up the nonrenewable things many times faster than we are finding new ones.”
• Martin Litton, Sierra Club director

“By the year 2000, 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.’”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

“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.”
• Sen. Gaylord Nelson

“The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

Keep these predictions in mind when you hear the same predictions made today. They’ve been making the same predictions for 39 years. And they’re going to continue making them until…well…forever.

Here we are, 39 years later and the economy sucks, but the ecology’s fine. In fact this planet is doing a lot better than the planet on which those green lunatics live.

Source: http://www.ihatethemedia.com/earth-day-predictions-of-1970-the-reason-you-should-not-believe-earth-day-predictions-of-2009

Pee Poo

When I first saw the Peepoo bag I thought it was a joke, but after reading about it I realized it’s quite a novel idea. Basically it’s a plastic bag to go to the bathroom in, which is why I thought it was a joke, but this simple little bag employs some sophisticated sustainable solutions and solves some pretty daunting problems.

In the developing world clean water and sanitation are very scarce. This is due to over population and lack of infrastructure and poses a serious health risk to the affected populations. In these parts of the world not only do they lack the infrastructure to attain clean water, they also lack the infrastructure needed to deal with all their waste, so they end up contaminating the little water they have. Around the world, one child dies every 15 seconds from to contaminated water. For them the saying “Don’t piss where you drink” isn’t a clever metaphor, it’s a real life challenge.

More

Source: http://greenupgrader.com/7230/improving-sanitation-with-the-peepoo-bag/

The Hopi Pipe Ceremony

Purpose: As mentioned previously, the word “Medicine” has a different meaning for Native Americans. It encompasses well-being and spiritual health as well as physical health. A pipe ceremony is a ritual that Hopi Native Americans employ to pray to the Great Spirit. Great Spirit is comprised of the mother (the earth) the father (the heavens and celestial bodies) as well as the grandmothers and grandfathers. Grandmothers and grandfathers may be likened to angels. In the Hopi tradition, they are beings that have been in the universe since time began and they are thought to carry specific medicines. That is, they each have different strengths or aptitudes which the Hopi may call upon in different circumstances.

Pipe ceremonies can be carried out at virtually any time that the practitioner desires. One way to think of them is as an active or interactive prayer session or meditation. Sometimes a Hopi shaman (medicine man) is present for the ceremony, but that is by no means a requirement. Practitioners of the Hopi faith can perform a pipe ceremony when they are grateful for an answered prayer, to ask for the health or care of a loved one, to celebrate the birth or death of a family member, to ask for clarity when making a decision, to request the healing of a friend, or to express gratitude for life’s many blessings. One of the key aspects of the pipe ceremony is to develop one’s own relationship with Spirit with the understanding that Spirit will provide the tools necessary via channels such as the shaman. [More..]

Source: http://altmed.creighton.edu/AmericanIndianMed/Hopi%20Pipe%20Ceremony.htm

The Nature of Knowledge

By Edwin E. Ott

All knowledge is illusion! By this statement I am not meaning put down knowledge nor promote magic, but I do believe it is important to acknowledge the limitations of our knowledge base. If we do not remember our fundamental premises, we may astound ourselves with pronouncements which do nothing more than restate these premises. Let me explain what I mean by knowledge being illusion and how I arrive at this conclusion.

I accept as axiomatic the existence of “reality,” that is, the essence of the universe, reality, exists independently of the existence of sentient observers. I believe this is the common operating axiom of most people, and as such, may seem to be trivial. However, this is not the only viable premise of the nature of the universe.

Probably the first operating premise we learn is that what is perceived is “real.” Seeing is believing. This axiom has a long history in human thought. For example, the “Doubting Thomas” story in the Bible is an application of this premise. Although the advent of modern technology has “shown” us that many perceptions may not be “real,” this premise still has a strong hold in modern society. For example, a corollary to this premise is touted more and more frequently today –it’s not what you do that counts, but what people think you do. This “perception is all important” philosophy may be well suited to sales, but I hope the mechanics servicing the next airliner I ride do not subscribe to this premise. “Virtual reality” can help us understand information, but “virtual maintenance” would be a disaster.

In most of science, the perception premise has been replaced or severely modified. Most scientists seek to describe reality by using perceived observations to develop generalized concepts. Initially, our perceptions were limited to our natural senses: sight, hearing, and touch. Today we have many more means of perception, such as CAT scans, MRI, radio telescopes, voter polls, etc. With the growth of our conceptual knowledge, we developed the premise of the existence of “truth” and “reality” which can be known by sifting and analyzing “observations” (perceived information).

In physics, the premise of reality existing independently of sentient observers, is known as “classical” theory. Most of the perceived knowledge near the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th Century was closely related to our natural senses. According to science historians, physicists were so pleased with themselves at this time they declared there was nothing more to learn. Of course, today we know this was arrogant boasting. (Presuming that mass media worked then much like it does now, I would surmise that much of this boasting was media hype. I seriously doubt that many scientists at that time would be so limited in their horizons to believe that all the basic laws of the universe were known.)

Satan Claus is Coming to Town

http://www.iamshaman.com/amanita/resurrection.htm

The painting entitled “Resurrection of Santa Claus” (above left) is the result of an exploration into the mysterious relationship between Santa and the Amanita muscaria, or fly agaric mushroom. Through the course of making this painting, I discovered that much of the popular iconography surrounding Santa Claus can be linked to the fly agaric. His immortality, omniscience, powers of magical flight and prosperity can all be attributed to this particular mushroom and its entheogenic powers. (1) Unquestioned holiday symbols such as flying reindeer, chimney sliding, Christmas trees and magical elves at the north pole all begin to make sense in the context of Santa’s relationship to the fly agaric.

As I am primarily a painter, this is to be taken as a loose presentation of some of my research and insight into a deep and murky subject. The fact that Santa is related to a psychedelic mushroom came to me spontaneously during a state of heightened awareness. And, after much research, I have found growing support for this hidden secret of Christmas. I see Santa Claus primarily as a symbol, an archetype. Ultimately he represents masculine spiritual power, like Buddha or Christ, yet we may need to look deep beneath the surface to see his potency. His current form is twisted and grotesque, a caricature of his potential self. I believe he got this way due to the abuse of masculine power over thousands of years. Santa Claus represents magic which, in western society, has been controlled, abused, ridiculed, outlawed, repressed and finally forgotten. Santa is often times mocked, diminished and misunderstood as he is portrayed as a slave to commerce, infantile, dysfunctional, a joke. On the other hand, as he is preached to our children, he is wise, benevolent and magically powerful.

How are we to make sense of this conundrum? The only answer, I submit, is through facing the bizarre fact that Santa Claus and Christmas have a hidden secret: namely the powerful entheogenic mushroom, Amanita muscaria. Though perhaps challenging and difficult to accept, a close examination of this strange relationship offers deep insight into the nature of the human soul. This long forgotten key to the hidden meaning of Christmas helps to explain the very nature of the classic religious experience. And as we probe deeper into this mystery, it may even shed light on the widespread religious and political oppression that still dominates much of the world.