Let’s end climate change hysteria

President Trump’s recent decision to pull America out of the Paris climate agreement is an insult to scientists and academicians who have noted the dire consequences of climate change.

▪ Harvard biologist George Wald has estimated that “civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”

▪ Ecologist Kenneth Watt told Time Magazine “At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it’s only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.”

▪ Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich has predicted that “air pollution … is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.”

▪ Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, predicts that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.

Clearly we are headed for an apocalyptic disaster soon. Oh, wait a minute, I apologize, these are all predictions made at the time of the first Earth Day in 1970.

Perhaps a rational, non-hysterical and viewpoint diverse conversation is in order regarding the best way to balance valid environmental and economic concerns.

This story was originally published June 20, 2017 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Let’s end climate change hysteria."