Stephen Schneider, an atmospheric scientist who served as a consultant to The Fire Next Time , is one of the foremost advocates of the theory that carbon dioxide and other man-made emissions are slowly warming up the atmosphere. A summary of trends would appear to indicate that The Fire Next Time leaned more toward effectiveness at the expense of honesty. Acid rain comes from sulfur oxides, emissions of which peaked in 1970, and nitrogen oxides, which peaked in 1978 but have declined only slightly since then. A 1991 study by the federal National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program also found that concerns over acid rain, while partly justified, were greatly overstated. Use of synthetic pesticides, a great worry to many environmentalists, peaked in 1981 and has stablized at a lower level.
Soil erosion continues but at much reduced rates.
Likewise, wetlands destruction has been enormously slowed. In 1970, 1.6 million acres of new trees were planted in U.S. forests. By 1990, that was up to 2.86 million. A little over a decade ago, the common wisdom was that gasoline prices would go through the roof because we were running out of oil. Every year for the past several decades we've heard we're running out of oil.