Re: 2002's 'Most Dubious News Stories of the Year' -- Apostolic Message Board

>cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="746"> >width="441"> >size="4">2002's 'Most Dubious News Stories of the
>Year'
>size="3">By Alan Caruba
CNSNews.com Commentary

>December 27, 2002

Junk Science Claims
>Competed with the Islamic Jihad

"In a
>year when Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein made the
>bogeyman look like the Tooth Fairy," says Alan
>Caruba, "the 'environmaniacs' kept telling anyone
>who would listen that the Earth was doomed and
>everything you ate, drank or breathed would kill
>you."

In his 12th annual review of
>"The Most Dubious News Stories of the Year",
>the National Anxiety Center has announced Caruba's
>selection of claims given media coverage in 2002. A
>clearinghouse for information about scare campaigns,
>it was founded by Caruba in 1990.

The
>Obesity "Epidemic"

In a campaign
>similar to that leveled against the tobacco industry,
>the drumbeat of news about an "obesity"
>epidemic stayed in the news much of the year, noted
>the Center. "This attack on the fast-food
>industry was greeted with joy by trial lawyers, the
>only people to actually benefit from idiotic
>lawsuits," said Caruba. In July, the National
>Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine warned
>against trans-fatty acids thus putting vegetable
>shortening, dairy products, pastries, crackers, and
>fried foods off limits. That same month, a New York
>City lawyer filed a suit against four fast-food
>corporations on behalf of an obese
>client.

Beware of Chocolate

In
>May, a California group, the American Environmental
>Safety Institute, launched a lawsuit against major
>chocolate makers for failing to warn consumers against
>the alleged danger of infinitesimal amounts of lead
>and cadmium. "Trace amounts of minerals,
>including arsenic, exist in everything we eat without
>any demonstration of harm," noted
>Caruba.

EPA says toxic sludge is good for fish.
>In June, the Environmental Protection Agency and Army
>Corps of Engineers defended the dumping of toxic
>sludge into the Potomac River saying that it may
>"actually protect the fish." Despite the
>Clean Water and Endangered Species Act, the EPA
>continues to ignore the threat its toxic sludge policy
>poses to both animals and humans.

Attacking
>Plastic

Despite four decades of safe use,
>the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning in
>July about plastic intravenous (IV) bags and tubes
>based totally on a hypothetical harm.
>Environmentalists have been attacking the use of
>plastic for decades, claiming a
>"carcinogenic" threat that even the World
>Health Organization has refused to
>confirm.

Declaring the oceans to be
>"wilderness"

An environmental
>group, the Ocean Conservancy, in July, launched a
>campaign claiming that recreational fisherman were
>threatening the "biodiversity" of fish,
>seeking to put major portions of the ocean off limits
>to sport fishing in Alaska, Hawaii and
>Florida.

End of the world claims. The British,
>who thrive on claims the Earth will be destroyed at
>any moment, were treated to yet another in July when
>the BBC warned that a space rock that could hit the
>Earth on February 1, 2019.

Hot or cold?
>Which is it?

In October, Dr. Robert
>Gagosian, president of the Woods Hole Oceanographic
>Institute in Massachusetts, predicted that "The
>earth's climate could switch gears and jump very
>rapidly", thus plunging everyone into a new Ice
>Age instead of the predicted global warming.
>"Predictions are fun, they get headlines, and
>they scare anyone silly enough to pay attention,"
>says Caruba.

"Light" and
>"noise" pollution

In July, the
>International Dark-Sky Association launched an effort
>in a Washington, DC suburb to reduce nighttime
>lighting to "save the night skies." In
>August, a group called Noise Free America announced
>that "noise pollution" was a growing
>epidemic that would lead to "social deterioration
>and chaos."

Cities under
>water

Greenpeace, one of the most absurd of
>the many environmental organizations, claimed in
>August that Manhattan and Shanghai, among other
>coastal cities could be underwater and worldwide
>starvation would occur because of the rise in water
>levels. Scientists have long known the oceans rise
>about three inches or less every hundred
>years.

"All this is going on," said
>Caruba, "despite the fact that life expectancy in
>America is the highest it has ever been and the ample
>evidence that life on Earth continues to improve for
>people throughout the world. The Earth is not running
>out of food or natural resources. The claims of
>environmentalists and others have nothing to do with
>scientific and economic data that clearly demonstrates
>the improvement of life for people
>everywhere."

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