Some Good News on Earth Day

There is reason to "breathe easier" today, the thirty-sixth anniversary of the first Earth Day in 1970, claims the The Wall Street Journal.

In the 1970s, environmentalists claimed that by now we would be seeing mass starvation, overpopulation, and global cooling among all things. Since that time, the starvations we have witnessed have not been widespread and were primarily political in nature brought on by wars and political corruption, the U.N. has become deeply concerned about the depopulation in Europe, and global cooling is no longer a concern, to say the least.

Great progress has been made since 1970. We have cleaner air, cleaner water, and increases in forestland in the Northeast, among other things, according to EPA statistics. Air and water pollution has been greatly reduced despite twice the number of cars on the road and thrice the number of miles driven annually. Unfortunately, environmentalists pay little attention to these numerous successes, perhaps because the first goal of any organization is its own continuance.

Also in the news, Duke University scientists announced on April 20, that "the magnitude of future global warming will likely fall well short of current highest predictions."

On April 21, 2006, the Washington Times reported:

Ms. Hegerl and her four-member team based their conclusions on thermometer
readings over the past century, along with "ancient climate records," including
tree-ring studies and ice-core samples that revealed hot and cold spells and
airborne particulates over a 700-year period. In addition, they created 1,000
computer-based weather simulations for the past 1,000 years.

"Ancient and modern evidence suggest limits to future global warming," the study concluded. It was published in the journal Nature.

According to climatologist and Cato senior fellow Patrick J. Michaels,

"...we can say with considerable confidence that warming will be at the low end
of projections made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change. When the models are adjusted with the observed rate, the warming
for the next 100 years works out to 1.7 degrees Celsius. This low value
would, in a rational world, relegate global warming to the background of
environmental issues."

How's that for some good news for a change?