It's really risky to make future predictions. Still, apocalyptic predictions are sometimes made, especially if it's far enough in the future that there will be no price to pay for being wrong.
Earth Day began back in 1970, 46 years ago. There were some spectacular predictions made around that time:
* George Wald, biologist at Harvard, said "civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind"
*Paul Ehrlich said that it was too late to save humanity (in 1970) from massive starvation events killing hundreds of millions of people (The Population Bomb)
*Ehrlich again: "between 1980 and 1989, some 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, [will] perish in the “Great Die-Off.”
*In January 1970, Life magazine reported, “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 . . "
Advancing to 2016, people are better fed, better housed, breathe cleaner air.
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