Thursday 23 April 2015

…if environmentalists’ predictions from the 1970s were correct

By now, if environmentalists’ predictions from the 1970s were correct, as reported in leading media of the time, civilisation should have ended; we can no longer see the sun; freshwater fish should all have suffocated; we will have been wearing gas masks for thirty years and thousands annually will be dying from air pollution; the greatest cataclysm in the history of man, the Great Die-Off,  would have happened, the world  no longer be suitable for human habitation, and  the human race would be approaching extinction;  food and oil ran out fifteen years ago, 80% of all species have perished for ever, and 90% of all rain forests have gone; and, finally, the world was eleven degrees colder than the 70s just fifteen years ago, and is now in the grip of an Ice Age.

Instead, well, we’re still here, and we’re still thankful for all the fish.

And around half of those environmentalists are still making predictions about our survival and everything we love.

And the media are still printing them.

Here are Robert Fripp and Peter Gabriel, with a message from the 70s:

6 comments:

paul scott said...

sweet jesus brother, I did not want ever to enter this climate debate.
but I did ,these fools forced my arrogance and now I am banned almost everywhere,
It is a religion too bad , another day another fact PC
The good thing is , we always win.
We always win ,
A celebration of life PC
we always win with facts

Anonymous said...

I remember magazines in my youth saying we would soon have so much leisure time we would need re-training to cope with it. Popular Mechanics comes to mind as the source but I suspect I'm wrong unless making some shelves or a deck chair was something to occupy the time.

It would have been nice if it was true.

3:16

MarkT said...

Interestingly, when I googled this song I read the following on it's meaning:


"Gabriel: "I was referring to a mental flood... a release, a wash over the mind."

This presents an image of a society where people can read each other's minds. Those who are honest and open will thrive while those who have not will be exposed for who they really are."

Gabriel was inspired by a dream he had in which people could see each other's thoughts, producing a psychic flood."

Given the rambling at the intro, something about us having 40 years left before some cataclysm would consume us, I find that explanation very had to believe!

Peter Cresswell said...

Ah, the Frrippertronics and rambling at the start, by JG Bennett, were the contributions of Fripp. It is a great song, but I do like the reminder of the prediction...

Anonymous said...

I prefer the re-recorded 1990 (or thereabouts) version, in which he's accompanied only by piano. The originals always sounded a bit overdone to me.
Frankie Lee

Peter Cresswell said...

@Frankie Lee: For me, I got into it through Fripp, rather than Gabriel, so for me the less Gabriel the better. :-)