Another environmental scare debunked:
Acid rain killing all forests was the main environmental scare in the 1980s
A new half-century study shows acid rain doesn't kill trees
— actually, trees grow more with acid rain!
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Acid rain scare in the 1980s delivered full-on panic
No more so than in Germany, where papers claimed "the forest is dying," called it an "ecological Hiroshima" and claimed ‘‘the dying of the forests will have a greater impact on our country than World War II’’
All false
The 1980s Acid Rain scare we know now was mostly false
New study: acid rain actually makes trees grow faster
Yet, a majority of Germans in 1985 believed "all forests will be dead by 2000" because of acid rain
We were misled
bibliothek.wzb.eu/pdf/1986/iiug-…
sauerlaender-verlag.com/CMS/uploads/me…
Environmental scares abound — and most are wrong or exaggerated
We are constantly being told that the world is ending — like the forests were "4 minutes to midnight" in 1980
Except it wasn't
Experts constantly tell us that "we have just 10 years left"
One peer-reviewed study shows 67% of apocalyptic environmental claims are wrong
because they never happened
Like when King Charles in 2019 told us about climate change that "we have 18 months to save the world"
telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2…
inderscience.com/info/inarticle…
Here is a good academic overview of the Acid Rain scare
Conclusion: The real forests didn't die. The forests only died in the minds of people
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
For a wonderful example of utterly wrong environmental predictions, see Life magazine from January 1970:
By 1980, we'll all have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution
They don't know if CO₂ will cause mass floodings or a new ice age
But they know it will be bad
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.