Wired has a good article about the “we’re dooooooomed” industry, and how they’ve gotten it so very wrong over the past few decades:
Apocalypse Not: Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Worry About End Times
It covers some of the new ones, along with some oldies but goldies that some of y’all may remember fondly, while some of you youngun’s might not remember at all.
Such as:
- Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 claim that the 1970’s and 80’s would see massive die-offs in human population due to famine
- Life magazines 1970 claim that by 85 city dwellers would need gas masks
- The numerous early-80’s scares about acid rain wiping out the forests
- The ozone hole… which continues to grow, but continues to not kill us all
- Oprah Winfrey, 1987: “Research studies now project that one in five—listen to me, hard to believe—one in five heterosexuals could be dead from AIDS at the end of the next three years. That’s by 1990.” (This, by the way, is my favorite.)
- We still seem to have oil and gas. More expensive, but reserves will last for decades to centuries.
And from the comments section of the article:
The present growth rate of apocalyptic predictions is unsustainable! At this rate, there will be so many apocalyptic predictions that by 2015 half of the world’s GDP will be expended promulgating and refuting various apocalyptic scenarios! People will be so breathless with anxiety that they will be fainting and dying in the streets! WAKE UP SHEEPLE!! Unless we can find a way to stop making apocalyptic predictions, IT WILL BE AN APOCALYPSE!!11!!1!!2!!!!