40 Years Ago, We Were All Gonna Starve

In 1968, eminent and learned professor Paul R. Erlich assured us that we were all gonna starve to death.  As is often the case when books or films deal with catastrophism, Erlich's book, "The Population Bomb", was a best seller.

Erlich made it clear that "in the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death".  Nothing could be done about it unless radical action was immediately undertaken to limit human population, and even then we'd take a big hit.

"The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate..."

The "science is settled."

Sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it?

Of course, at this time in history the preoccupation largely was centered upon anthropogenic global cooling: human activities were destroying the planet; plunging the world headlong into a new and terrible Ice Age.  By 2000, some predicted that glaciers would have reached the equator.

Fortunately, we're much more enlightened today.  We now know that anthropogenic gloabl cooling was never really an issue; the problem has been anthropogenic global warming.  The science is settled; radical action must be taken.

Rapid warming of the sort we've seen this year will dramatically curtail crop yields in the tropics and sub-tropics, leading to massive starvation.  Fortunately, we're far better prepared.

We're set up to adapt to this killer heat because we have taken steps toward breeding heat-resistant crops.  Phew!  No doubt you were kind of worried, there.

Approaches range from conventional crop breeding to genetic modification.

A number of other public research institutions and commercial companies are also working on drought- and heat-tolerant varieties. Agrichemical giant Monsanto said this week it had made a "significant step" in creating a drought-tolerant maize which could be available as early as 2010.

The genetically modified (GM) corn, which Monsanto claims will "reset the bar" in farming productivity, has moved to the final stage of development and could reach commercial usage within two years, the company said.

Oh, but never mind:

However, the claims were dismissed as "hype and misinformation," by Bill Freese, a science analyst at the Centre for Food Safety in Washington DC.

Well, the science is in.  We're all gonna starve.  Thanks for the heads-up, Bill.  Apparently, there's always a job for crack scientific minds.

Comments

[Bobkat49]

yes and remember, thanks to the banning of DDT millions of people will enjoy the wonders of malaria.