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Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
@BjornLomborg
Jul 17 • 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
Jul 6
Today, the Great Barrier Reef is better than ever

But 12 years ago, we were told about the "Great Reef Catastrophe"

and how the reef would be almost gone today

Moral of the story: Don't always believe the scare stories

Refs in🧵
Here is the official data

apps.aims.gov.au/reef-monitorin…
Here is the 2012 article telling us about the terrible state of the Great Barrier Reef

and about how it will almost halve again by 2022 to 5-10%

pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

Image
Image
Read 4 tweets
Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Jul 2
Doesn't fit the narrative, but

2024 record coral cover for Great Barrier Reef

Based on official data for all 11 sectors of GBR,

Last three years, 2022-2024, have been unprecedented

Data: apps.aims.gov.au/reef-monitorin…Image
Official, reef-wide average widely published as the Great Barrier Reef got worse

But when it got better, official average stopped

Here is the optimal average (least-square) based on their 11 published sectors,

Last official reef-wide average: apps.aims.gov.au/reef-monitorin…
aims.gov.au/reef-monitorin…Image
In 2014, the eco-worried Guardian wrote the obituary of the Great Barrier Reef

Last three years, the Great Barrier Reef has been better than ever since records started in 1986

Moral: Don't believe all scare stories theguardian.com/environment/ng…Image
Read 4 tweets
Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Jun 26
Misinformation:

New York Times tells you that heat is “the deadliest of all extreme weather events”

But NYTimes simply ignore their own data, which shows

Cold is 9x deadlier

But, of course, this doesn't fit the climate narrative

NYTimes:
WMO:
Data from Lancet: nytimes.com/2024/06/21/cli…
library.wmo.int/viewer/68500/d…
thelancet.com/journals/lanpl…Image
Not just the New York Times misinforming on heat deaths:

The Guardian misinforms and misdirects, trying to avoid telling you that cold deaths vastly outweigh heat deaths


Image
Not just the New York Times misinforming on heat deaths:

Bloomberg tosses and turns to avoid telling you that cold deaths vastly outweigh heat deaths


Image
Read 6 tweets
Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Feb 20
Climate alarmists are annoyed that global climate-related disaster deaths have declined dramatically

Then they discovered how to cherry-pick deaths to look like they’re increasing

— just (indefensibly) remove the top 50 most deadly mega-disasters and rig the scales

🧵+refsImage
After manipulating their stats, they have the temerity to claim “Misinterpreting statistics could be harmful if it supports a discourse minimizing the importance of climate action”

I’m pretty sure misinterpreting statistics is wrong no matter what

, p7cred.be/sites/default/…Image
They show low death numbers from 1900s and 1910s, but these are likely wrong ()

They have left out at least two major catastrophes, likely missing at least 20-25 million deaths from the Chinese flood in 1906, leading to famine in 1906-07, and at least 2-10 million deaths from the Persian drought leading to famine in 1917-19


sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_f…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_f…Image
Read 8 tweets
Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Feb 4
CO₂ and climate make the world greener

Over 2001-20 the world added so many new leaves

the additional leaf area is equivalent to 1.4x the area of the Contiguous US

Climate net problem

but breathless reporting ignores an ever-greening world

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…Image
CO₂ makes world greener

Every two seconds global leaf area grows by 5 soccer pitches

Every year, the world adds almost three Great Britains of additional leaf area

Climate net problem, but breathless reporting ignores an ever-greening world

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…Image
Global greening happens over most of the world, but especially in China, India, Europe, African Sahel (the greening of the Sahel), Southern Brazil and across US/Canada

Much of this is from forests and increased cropping in croplands

nature.com/articles/s4189…
Image
Read 10 tweets
Bjorn Lomborg Profile picture
Jan 16
Gasoline, not electric cars:

Two-thirds of American's want their next car to be fossil fuel driven, with just 6% battery-electric

Deloitte new 2024 Global Automotive Consumer Study

Key trend: "Slowing EV (electric car) momentum"

deloitte.com/global/en/Indu…Image
Electric cars: Consumers worry

They worry about charging time, range anxiety,
cost, battery safety, and availability of charging infrastructure

deloitte.com/global/en/Indu…
Image
We're being told that electric cars will take over the US

But Biden's Energy Information Administration estimates that by 2050, 84% of all cars will still run on fossil fuels


Image
Read 4 tweets

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