“I never thought I’d live to see the day when the right wing would become the cool ones giving the middle finger to the establishment, and the left wing becoming the snivelling self-righteous twats, going around shaming everyone.”
- John Lydon, The Sex Pistols
In 1954, scientists told Congress the Arctic would melt within 25 to 50 years. Then 20 years later, in 1974, Time magazine warned we were heading for another ice age.
By the 1990s, when that didn't happen, warming was the returning scare, with Norway's top experts saying the Arctic would be ice-free by 2007.
The Centre for Biological Diversity said it would be ice-free by 2012.
The BBC said by 2013.
Needless to say, they were all wrong.
The Arctic sea ice minimum has actually been stable for the past 18 years now.
In 2008, NASA's James Hansen predicted Lower Manhattan would be underwater by 2018 due to the burning of fossil fuels.
Back in 1923, scientists claimed Glacier National Park would melt by 1950. Then in 2006, Al Gore said it would be gone by 2020. Yet today, the glaciers are still there about the same size they were 35 years ago.
Decade after decade, the doomsday dates change, but the climate alarmist script persists.
In 2004, the BBC warned the Maldives were "soon to be uninhabitable," claiming sea levels were rising 0.9 cm per year and that 80% of the islands could vanish within a century.
More than two decades later though, reality says otherwise.
The Maldives haven't sunk, they've exploded with growth: 12 new airports, expanded international terminals, record tourism of over 2 million visitors a year, and more than 170 resorts, with 7 added in 2024.
Instead of disappearing under the waves, this so-called "paradise in peril" has shown no statistically significant sea level rise since the 1980s, according to satellite data.
Here we have another 'climate catastrophe' headline completely undone by time.