We've been hearing these doom and gloom predictions since at least the 60s.
Late 60s, the often repeated prediction that by the end of the century, there will be standing room only on the planet. As it turned out, by 1999, the entire population of the world could have fitted, standing, on the Isle of Wight. Not quite the whole world, unless you live there in which case it is.
I also seem to recall, in 1967, a very earnest man on the TV claiming that a cure for cancer was finally within grasp. They just need a bit more money.
Around 1990, sea levels were supposed to be rising by a metre by 2012. I live on the S Coast.
Then there was tannin acid poisoning from drinking tea, arteries clogged up from eating meat, processed tomatoes will cure cancer, white flour is bleached with wot you clean toilets with, Coca Cola will clean toilets, (So will oranges and any other citrus fruit), salt will kill us all,
When claims are not backed by any actual figures or where those figures are specious, we perhaps should be asking ourselves why?
More importantly, perhaps we might ask ourselves who these sorts of scares still manage to convince otherwise intelligent people. (And other living things.)
