Time to take a 'chill pill'?

OK I get it, things are warming up, we are to blame (or at least not helping) but we are aware of the situation and trying to rectify things. No need to spread fear and panic.

I'm struck by a sense of deja-vu: When I was in high school in the early 1970s, we were told that the world, then home to about 4 billion people, was at its breaking point. Experts warned that by the end of the 1970s, the planet would face mass starvation. Books like "The Population Bomb" filled my mind with images of a bleak future... Who could not look at the hockey stick population growth and not see the plain truth, that we were on the edge of catastrophe? The preface of the book stated: "The battle to feed all of humanity is over. By the end of the 1970s, 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."

Of course, this did not deter the author and others from offering draconian measures on how to mitigate the pending disaster:

Government intervention into how many children a family could have.

Luxury tax on diapers and cribs.

Even putting anti-fertility drugs into the drinking water supply!

What sensible person would even think or dare to bring children into this bleak world where their offspring would most likely die from starvation?

These predictions, though dire and urgent, did not come to pass. Instead, we adapted and thrived, with the global population now at 8 billion in 2024. The doomsayers got it totally wrong. Advances in technology, agriculture, and healthcare have allowed us to support a population double what was once deemed unsustainable. Unfortunately, there are pockets of famine, but these are due to armed conflicts.

There are models for population predictions and as one can imagine with models, many different forecasts. Some predict world population at 15 billion by 2100 and others only 6 billion with forecasts for everything in between... That is a wide gap. But paradoxically, now we face the opposite concern: fears of a POPULATION COLLAPSE due to declining birth rates in many parts of the world.

As a kid, I once believed that the only way to save the world was to prevent more lives from entering it. Had I listened to those doomsayers and decided not to have children, I would have cheated myself out of four great kids and now grandchildren. And now to be told we don't have enough people? Man, I would be kicking myself. Doomsayers have a sense of spectacle. They want to get your attention. Even when they are wrong, they feel that they brought awareness to their cause and that the end justifies the means.

So back to climate change. Once again, we are faced with dire predictions of doom and gloom. Being instilled with a sense of urgency that allows a self-anointed few to think they know best and can dictate to the rest of us. Sure, rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and rising oceans paint a worrying picture of the future. But as we know, many predictions are totally wrong. Technology and human ingenuity will play crucial roles in mitigating the impacts of climate change. Ironically the more minds we bring into the world to work on this the better. Climate activists should be encouraging students to stay in school and get a good education, rather than to skip school and strike. Showmanship and spectacle that has the exact opposite effect of what we need. Silly.

Renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, development of nuclear and research into carbon capture and storage, and ultimately fusion power are just a few examples of how we are already trying to make strides toward a more sustainable future.

Climate change is a formidable challenge, but it is one we will overcome. Just take a deep breath and don't panic. I'm glad I didn't back in the 70's ??