Environmental Disasters, Oh My!

Environmental Disasters, Oh My!

According to this "news article" (which showed not the slightest bit of the famous "journalistic skepticism" seen so frequently when reading articles which disagree with enviro-wackiness), the Earth will implode in about 7 minutes.

Ok, so that's an exaggeration: 9 minutes, really. . . .

Just wait and see. Here it comes..................

Oh wait, maybe some of the numbers in my projection software were off or my studies were a bit "data challenged" . . . but I swear that the Earth is going to implode any minute now. Give me $10 billion in research funds and I'll tell you the same thing (or worse) in a couple of years.

Even better: the Earth will implode in 150 years.

(That way I don't have to worry about being right or wrong because you'll never be able to verify my prediction until long after I cash your check! Bwaaahaaahaahaaa!!!!!)

According to this ONE article, here's what the Earth will be like in a few years:

• The world's oceans will be toxic to fish.

  The spreading zones have doubled over the last decade and pose as big a threat to fish stocks as overfishing . . . .
  
  The new findings tally nearly 150 dead zones around the globe, double the number in 1990, with some stretching 27,000 square miles.
  
  Dead zones have long afflicted the Gulf of Mexico and Chesapeake Bay, but are now spreading to other bodies of water, such as the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Adriatic Sea, Gulf of Thailand and Yellow Sea, as other regions develop, UNEP said.
  
  They are also appearing off South America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

  Everything presented as straight fact. Not even a hint of "this UN environmental group whose livelihood depends on there being enviro-disasters to fight says that . . . ." Or that maybe these "areas" are being discovered through better detection techniques rather than through appearances of new areas (assuming that the data is correct and the studies could survive the light of scrutiny).

  The main cause is excess nitrogen run-off from farm fertilizers, sewage and industrial pollutants. The nitrogen triggers blooms of microscopic algae known as phytoplankton. As the algae die and rot, they consume oxygen, thereby suffocating everything from clams and lobsters to oysters and fish.
  
  "Human kind is engaged in a gigantic, global, experiment as a result of inefficient and often overuse of fertilizers, the discharge of untreated sewage and the ever rising emissions from vehicles and factories," UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said in a statement.
  
  "Unless urgent action is taken to tackle the sources of the problem, it is likely to escalate rapidly," Toepfer said.
  
  UNEP urged nations to cooperate in reducing the amount of nitrogen discharged into their coastal waters, in part by cutting back on fertilizer use or planting more forests and grasslands along feeder rivers to soak up the excess nitrogen.

  Again, not a hint of "UNEP claims that" . . . just predetermined facts that are "proven" even if not challenged. I bet that there are scientists, respected scientists even, who might disagree with these claims. But the author did not find a single one to say that maybe this zealous enviro-group might just possibly be wrong, or exaggerating, or not entirely right, or mostly right but with such-and-such reservation . . . nothing. It's presented as if no on could possibly contradict or disagree in the slightest with the FACTS presented here.
  
  
• The sun will be blotted out by dust storms.

  The growing frequency of dust and sand storms is another concern, especially storms caused by land degradation and desertification in Mongolia and northern China.
  
  Scientists have recently linked similar storms, originating in the Sahara, with damage to coral reefs in the Caribbean, UNEP said.

  While not explicitly saying so, the clear impression from the article is that these bad things are caused by humanity. If they aren't, how exactly are we supposed to stop Nature from changing which areas of the world are desert and which are not? If they are, how about so supporting docs and, again, an opposing point of view or two in an effort to be fair and balanced?
  
  
• Everyone will die of thirst. Ok, so a couple of people (rich people, I am sure) will still have drinking water

  UNEP warns that without concerted effort to improve access to safe drinking water, a third of the world's population is likely to suffer chronic water shortages within a few decades. About 1.1 billion people lacked access to safe drinking water in 2000, while another 2.4 billion lacked access to basic sanitation, UNEP said.
  
  That meeting will assess progress toward United Nations targets of halving the proportion of people with no access to safe drinking water or basic sanitation by 2015.

I wonder if this is the same group that was predicting global cooling in the 70's or that the polar ice caps would be reduced by 25% by 2000 . . . .