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Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
@BjornLomborg
Jul 17, 2024 • 7 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
Scrolly
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…Image
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 falseImage
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…Image
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"

Image
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…Image
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…
Image
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 badImage

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More from @BjornLomborg

Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Oct 30
Climate professor Michael Mann claims “There is no greater threat to developing nations than the climate crisis”

His claim is wrong in many ways

1) Intuitively wrong. Poor parents across the world worry about hunger, poverty, disease, insecurity, bad education. When your kid could die tonight from an easily curable disease, your priority is not a 0.1°C temperature reduction in a century

Mann quote: edition.cnn.com/2025/10/28/bus…Image
WRONG: Climate professor Michael Mann claims “There is no greater threat to developing nations than the climate crisis”

2) Leaders in low- and middle-income countries find education, employment, peace, and health are at the top of their development priorities, with climate at 12th of 16 issues

docs.aiddata.org/ad4/pdfs/Liste…Image
WRONG: Climate professor Michael Mann claims “There is no greater threat to developing nations than the climate crisis”

3) World Bank’s own surveys show that climate is not high on most countries’ agenda

On average, less than 6% of countries have climate in their top 3 priorities
Image
Read 5 tweets
Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Sep 2
The world is burning less, not more

That's contrary to the climate narrative

2025 has seen dramatically less fire in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe

On this trajectory, 2025 could become the lowest-burn year in the 21st century

Did you see this reported anywhere?

Data: from satellites circling the planet 24/7 (MODIS), modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/dataprod/…

2025 data from Jan 1-Sept 2 shows 80% as much burned area as normally for same period 2012-24 from Global Wildfire Information System, gwis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/apps/gwis.stat…

Light blue data shows extrapolation on current trajectory to full 2025Image
In 2025, the world is burning less, not more

That's contrary to the climate narrative

2025 has seen extraordinarily little fire in Africa, much less than average, and even less than the minimum, from 2012-24

Did you see this reported anywhere?

Data from Global Wildfire Information System gwis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/apps/gwis.stat…Image
In 2025, the world is burning less, not more

That's contrary to the climate narrative

2025 has seen extraordinarily little fire in the Americas, much less than average, and even less than the minimum, from 2012-24

Did you see this reported anywhere?

Data from Global Wildfire Information System gwis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/apps/gwis.stat…Image
Read 7 tweets
Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Jun 30
Awful climate scare

New Nature study claims climate means less food, “like everyone giving up breakfast."

Media even spins "mass starvation"

No, study's small print reveals ever more food, tempered slightly by climate

+ many other issues

The scare is the point

🧵Image
New study claims climate leads to much less food

Reality? "Reduction" is merely a deviation from increasing baseline yields

So, not less food overall, but slightly less of much more food

Still, the researchers tell the "less food" story to the public

nature.com/articles/s4158…Image
New study claims climate means food loss like giving up breakfast

Only true IF agricultural innovation halts today

Preposterous to assume progress stops — global yields up 8% since 2015, 1%+ annually since 1961

The researchers don't believe it, but they tell journalists Image
Read 9 tweets
Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
May 4
The cheap green lie

You are told that solar and wind are cheap

But cramming in more solar and wind just makes electricity more and more costly

because solar and wind are worthless when not sunny and windy

iea.org/data-and-stati…Image
The cheap green lie

You are told that solar and wind are cheap

But cramming in more solar and wind makes power more and more costly

because solar and wind are worthless when not sunny and windy

True for both 2023 and 2019, before Covid and Ukraine

iea.org/data-and-stati…Image
There are no high-solar&wind, low-cost nations

You are told that solar and wind are cheap

But cramming in more solar and wind just makes electricity more and more costly

because solar and wind are worthless when not sunny and windy

iea.org/data-and-stati…Image
Read 4 tweets
Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Apr 30
Two days ago, Spain lost 55% of its power, most from solar

Perception: Everyone wants to blame anything but renewables

Reality: With renewables, the grid gets vulnerable (missing inertia, mainly from fossil fuels) so we need more costly renewable management

So Reuters deceptively tells us, "don't blame renewables," blame "management of renewables"

reuters.com/business/energ…Image
"By continuously reducing inertia, Spain’s policymakers engineered a vulnerability."

"Spain’s electrical grid was operating with very little margin for error, a risky game that the Spanish government has been playing more aggressively each year since energy-transitionist ideologues took power two decades ago."

archive.ph/eonJRImage
Read 5 tweets
Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Jan 25
The myth that the green energy transition is inevitable and will make cheap electricity for everyone is one of the most dangerous self-delusions of the global elite

My piece for Sunday Telegraph

archive.ph/EufH0Image
Globally, fossil fuels supply 81% today (2022)

only marginally down from 81.2% in 2000

On current trends, fossil fuels are not on track to end in 2050
but in 4-9 centuries
iea.org/data-and-stati…Image
You are told that solar and wind are cheap

But cramming in more solar and wind just makes power more and more costly

because solar and wind are worthless when not sunny and windy

iea.org/data-and-stati……

x.com/i/web/status/1… Image
Read 4 tweets

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