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. This attack on the fast-food industry was greeted with joy by trial lawyers, the only people to actually benefit from idiotic lawsuits. 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, in- cluding arsenic, exist in everything we eat without any demonstration of harm.

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 "car- cinogenic" 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 and 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 claim in July, when the BBC warned that a space rock 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.

"Light" & "Noise" Pollution:

In July, the International Dark-Sky Association launched an effort in a Washington, D.C., 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 that 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, 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 other political ideologues and special interest groups have nothing to do with scientific and economic data that clearly demonstrates the improvement of life for people everywhere.

Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center (www.anxietycenter.com). He is the author of A POCKET GUIDE TO MILITANT ISLAM and THE UNITED NATIONS VS. THE UNITED STATES, both available from the National Anxiety Center, 9 Brookside Road, Maple- wood, New Jersey, 07040.

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