It’s Earth Day, the “largest civic event in the world” that was started to give bored anti-Vietnam hippies something else to protest about. It’s also an annual excuse for earnest news publications to run eco-garbage scare stories. Just take a look at this gem from the Guardian:

“Earth Day: scientists say 75% of known fossil fuel reserves must stay in ground.”

The Guardian story is following in a fine tradition, here’s some choice quotes from 1970, the year Earth Day was founded.

“[By 1995]…somewhere between 75 and 85 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct” Sen. Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day, Look Magazine

“the planet will cool, the water vapor will fall and freeze, and a new Ice Age will be born” Newsweek 

“By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half” Life Magazine

“Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from the intolerable deteriorations and possible extinction” The New York Times

Gaia has heard it all before…