For some, today is the end of Hanukkah. For Al Gore, it is the end of the world.
Al Gore is a private citizen. He has as much right to spout off as the village idiot in the town square of his choice. Heck, I do it on a daily basis on my blog. Yet for some reason, unlike me, he does not seem interested in saying anything meaningful or relevant.
He may not have the answers to global hotness (unless he has Shannon Doherty’s phone number and can get it to me), but at least he cures insomnia, although it is not true that he invented Nytol.
Nevertheless, whenever I need a column right away, ripping this fellow is not only easy, but good for the intellectual environment.
He recently wrote one of his smug self satisfying columns in “The Nation,” entitled, “A Precious and Painful Vision of the Future.” That column has already been written. It is called, “President Hillary.” Mr. Gore would agree with me on that one, since it forces him to check his ambitions at the door given that no evidence has surfaced that Bill Clinton and Al Gore ever slept together. Although…no…not going there.
https://tygrrrrexpress.com/2007/04/hey-al-gore-its-freezing-outside/
https://tygrrrrexpress.com/2007/04/no-global-warming-in-new-yorkam-i-back-in-la-yet/
https://tygrrrrexpress.com/2007/11/are-the-greeniacs-wrong/
Al Gore is speaking, so hopefully like a tree falling in the forest, nobody will hear it.
Now, for the Borealog.
“I have a purpose here today.”
So does everybody else. Relevant people do not need to announce they are relevant. That is why I do not keep protesting how handsome I am. I let my mom handle that.
“It is a purpose I have tried to serve for many years. I have prayed that God would show me a way to accomplish it.”
I pray to God as well. He answered my prayers in 2000. Pray quietly, God does not like being invoked loudly.
“One hundred and nineteen years ago, a wealthy inventor…”
Zzzzzzzzzzz…Don’t worry Mr. Gore. You are not any more boring than any other pointy headed academic professor discussing things only you care about.
“Seven years ago tomorrow, I read my own political obituary in a judgment that seemed to me harsh and mistaken–if not premature.”
That is not for you to decide Mr. Gore. Perhaps you would like to regulate my column as well. As for your political obituary, it was delayed 5 weeks because of your selfishness.
“We must act.”
Your entire Vice Presidency was an act. I pray there are no more showings.
“Life or death, blessings or curses. Therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”
What does the environment have to do with abortion? Al Gore and other liberals are another reason republicans might want to consider being pro-choice.
“We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency–a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst–though not all–of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly.”
Yes, it’s called Islamofacism. Perhaps if Al Queda blew up some trees he would understand this.
“So today, we dumped another 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer. And tomorrow, we will dump a slightly larger amount, with the cumulative concentrations now trapping more and more heat from the sun.”
Where does he get his numbers? Doesn’t New Jersey contribute twice that every day? The state still exists (ok, unfair, I admit).
“As a result, the earth has a fever. And the fever is rising.”
The heat is rising, I think, is an x-rated film. I personally have the fever for the flavor of a Pringle (oh great, now that obscure commercial from a couple decades ago is in my head).
“We asked for a second opinion. And a third. And a fourth.”
Saddam Hussein would ask his sons who they supported to lead Iraq. There was complete consensus. Want a 5th opinion? You’re boring, and most likely, wrong.
“The experts have told us…”
Experts are useless. Experts give Al Gore an award, so he is now an expert, and he received an award from people who happened to agree with him. I took logic in college, but mathematical symbolic logic, not circular.
“We are what is wrong, and we must make it right.”
Mr. Gore, you sired children, I have yet to do so. Therefore you are the problem. Tell your fellow liberals to stop breeding. I am not the problem, and resent you blaming me. Oh, and I would happily fly a private jet, and would not lecture others. Perhaps you can spread equality by giving mink coats to poor third world children. They will starve, but look fabulous. Hey, at least I do not pretend to help.
“Northern Hemisphere…(blah blah blah redacted)…seven years from now.”
We will all be burned to a crisp in 2014. I am glad I party like it’s 1999.
“In the last few months, it has been harder and harder to misinterpret the signs that our world is spinning out of kilter.”
Yes, again, it’s Islamofacist terrorism. Come on Osama, destroy a wetland already so the left will care.
“Desperate farmers are losing their livelihoods.”
Yes, it’s called the death tax. I wonder if more excessive regulations on tobacco farmers are what Mr. Gore wants, since he despised tobacco inbetween stints of spiking, planting and growing it.
“The very web of life on which we depend is being ripped and frayed.”
Perhaps Al Gore would have Spiderman fight Al Queda.
“One of the very first winners of the Prize in chemistry worried that, ‘We are evaporating our coal mines into the air.'”
We have more coal than we know what to do with. Besides, coal mines cannot float or fly into the air. Ever try to lift one? Coal can be gassified safely, and should be.
“Yet as George Orwell reminds us: ‘Sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.'”
I avoid false prophets, especially former politicians with no controlling legal authority or moral credibility.
“Indeed, without realizing it, we have begun to wage war on the earth itself. Now, we and the earth’s climate are locked in a relationship familiar to war planners: ‘Mutually assured destruction.'”
Does this mean the Earth is trying to kill us? Mutual requires both sides trying to kill. Heck, then we should kill the Earth. It would be self defense! No, not really.
“Now science is warning us…”
No, you are warning us. Science is apolitical, and has no agenda.
“There is an African proverb that says, ‘If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ We need to go far, quickly.”
You need to go far, quickly, and more importantly, quietly. My friends and I would pay the plane ticket, but you have a private jet.
“we must ensure that in mobilizing globally, we do not invite the establishment of ideological conformity and a new lock-step ‘ism.'”
Good. I disagree with you, and will not conform to your nonsense. Stick to lockbox-ism.
“That means adopting principles, values, laws, and treaties that release creativity and initiative at every level of society in multi-fold responses originating concurrently and spontaneously.”
Yes, it is called ingenuity, which is found in the private sector.
“We must understand the connections between the climate crisis and the afflictions of poverty, hunger, HIV-AIDS and other pandemics. As these problems are linked, so too must be their solutions. We must begin by making the common rescue of the global environment the central organizing principle of the world community.”
The central organizing principle is combatting terrorism. (Grabbing a bullhorn)…IT IS CALLED AL QUEDA YOU POMPOUS GASBAG!
“This week, I will urge the delegates in Bali…”
Bali is more concerned with nightclub bombings. You are as relevant there as you are here, which I believe is absolute zero on the Kelvin scale.
“And most important of all, we need to put a price on carbon–with a CO2 tax that is then rebated back to the people, progressively…”
No thank you Robin Hood. You get enough of my paycheck.
“The great Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen…”
I might hang myself with my necktie, so I hope someone else finishes this column for me.
“How did you find the moral courage to rise and successfully resolve a crisis that so many said was impossible to solve?”
I voted for George W. Bush in 2000, preventing emissions of gas emanating from your administration, not counting the nocturnal emissions of Mr. Clinton.
“So let us renew it, and say together: ‘We have a purpose. We are many. For this purpose we will rise, and we will act.'”
For once, Mr. Gore is right, even as he is far left. I will be acting now to save the world from real proven threats. I shall vote republican in 2008. Killing the terrorists protects free speech. Yes, it protects Mr. Gore as well, but that would only be a price to pay if anyone of significance was listening and taking him seriously. Oh wait, I forgot about the “experts.” They give each other awards, so they must be right.
Mr. Gore, I won the 2007 Bloggers Choice Award for most passionate fan base, so I am automatically right and you are wrong.
Wow, my credentials are impressive. That was easy.
eric
I hope that I am not going to RUIN that Famous No Bel Prize winner and Green credit Mogul BUT I heard this Morning on a radio show that the Artic Ice Cap is Freezing eralier than last year having already reached the same level as last February which can result in a higher and Higher Ice cap… Al Gore Scare Tactics for profit not withstanding…
Nice post. Yesterday’s too.
I’m no fan of Al Gore the Warming Whore.
I’m a heck of a lot more concerned with pollution and it’s effects than I am with terrorism. This is America. We should not fear terrorists. But we should fear the effects of our pollution. We emit 25% of the worlds pollutants. That is more than 5 times of percentage in the world population. If we don’t stop being greedy and stupid, we kill more of ourselves than the terrorirts ever could. But go ahead, shoot the messenger, admire Bush, whatever. You’ll deny it to your grandkids one day. I guarentee it.
JMJ
Gee JMJ, sounds to me like you wouldn’t mind being at the epicenter of the first city that is obliterated here in the US by TERRORISTS not smog. Have you any idea how ignorant that sounds?
Compared to the 50s and 60s our air pollution is minimal. And, you are dead wrong. China and India are pumping every bit as much as the US into the atmosphere, only the US is doing something about it and they are NOT.
You expose yourself as a Bush hater. Too bad, it diminishes your poor attempt to appear intelligent.
NB
I’m a Tennessee native and former resident, but I declare without traveling to England that I am ashamed that my birth state labored and groaned and produced such a humongous, insane, crooked, socialist ass. After reading your blog item, I must restrain myself from rolling on my unswept floor and roaring with laughter over Bore’s pompous language that reveals his attitude toward everyone, including those who disagree with him. If he believes his propaganda, he is truly the stupidest person on Earth. At any rate, he really should be given a sanity test.
Jersey McJones said,
December 12, 2007 at 1:20 pm
“I’m a heck of a lot more concerned with pollution and it’s effects than I am with terrorism. This is America. We should not fear terrorists.We kill more of ourselves than the terrorirts ever could.
Really ? Gerbil warming has alot of catching up to do before they can kill as many as terrorists have.
1868: The Ku Klux Klan in Georgia engage in many acts including whipping of black women and assassination of Republican Party members. It is impossible to untangle local vigilante violence from political terrorism by the organized Klan, but it is clear that attacks on blacks became common during 1868. The Freedmen’s Bureau agents reported 336 cases of murder or assault with intent to kill on freedmen across the state from January 1 through November 15. In the next three years Black churches and schools were burned, teachers were attacked, and freed people who refused to show “proper” deference were beaten and killed.[1]
1868: Attempted assassination of Prince Alfred in Sydney, Australia
The Fenian Brotherhood attacked Canadian targets in order to bring pressure on Britain to withdraw from Ireland
1881 July 2: American President James Garfield is assassinated by religious fanatic Charles J. Guiteau.
1881: Tzar Alexander II of Russia is assassinated by a People’s Will (Narodnaya volya) terrorist.
1886: Bomb at Haymarket Square, Chicago during a labor rally kills twelve people.
1891 May 11: Assassination attempt on Nicholas II of Russia by a Japanese police officer named Tsuda Sanzo.
1894: Explosion at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London. The bomb goes off prematurely, killing only the bomber.
1898 September 10: Empress Elisabeth of Bavaria of Austria-Hungary (commonly called “Sissi”) is stabbed to death by a young Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni, in Geneva
[edit] 1900s-1940s
The Wall Street Bombing 1901 September 6: American President William McKinley is assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.
1904 May 18: Ion Perdicaris and Cromwell Varley kidnapped and ransomed by bandit Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli in Morocco.
1904 June 16: Governor-General Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov is assassinated in Senate House in Helsinki by Finnish nationalist Eugen Schauman.
1909 October 26: Assassination of Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi by Korean independence activist An Jung-geun.
1910 October 1: A bomb at the Los Angeles Times newspaper building in Los Angeles, California, United States, killed 21 workers.
1914 June 28: Assassination in Sarajevo of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife, precipitating World War I.
1915 January 1: Battle of Broken Hill – Turkish nationalists shoot at civilians in the Australian town, killing six.
1915 July 2 Frank Holt, (a.k.a. Erich Muenter) a German professor exploded a bomb in the reception room of the U.S. Senate. The next morning he tried to assassinate J.P. Morgan, Jr., son of the financier whose company served as Great Britain’s principal U.S. purchasing agent for munitions and other war supplies to try and stop the United States entry into World War I against Germany.[2]
1920 September 16: Wall Street Bombing kills 38 people and wounds 300 others.
1925 April 16: St Nedelya Church assault kills 150 people, mostly high-ranked individuals, and wounds 500 in the Bulgarian capital Sofia
1927: The Ku Klux Klan launch a wave of political terror in Alabama.
1933 October 10: A Boeing 247 is destroyed in midflight by a nitroglycerin bomb. All seven people aboard are killed. This incident is the first proven case of air sabotage in the history of aviation.
1934 October 9: Assassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou in Marseille by Ustashas and IMRO
1940 – 1956: George Metesky, “the Mad Bomber” placed over 30 bombs in New York City in public places such as Grand Central Station and The Paramount Theatere injuring ten during this period in protest of the local electric utility. He also sent many threatening letters.
1946 July 22: Bombing of King David Hotel, the British Military HQ in Jerusalem, by the Zionist group Irgun, with 91 deaths – a mix of military and civilian
1948 January 30: Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse
1948 September 17: Assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte, United Nations mediator in Palestine, and his aide by Lehi
[edit] 1950s
During this and the next decade The Ku Klux Klan re-emerges. Some of the tactics used are lynching, cross burning and assassination.
1950 November 1: Puerto Rican nationalists fail to assassinate U.S. President Harry S. Truman.
1954 March 1: U.S. Capitol shooting incident by Puerto Rican nationalists, wounding five Congressmen.
1955 April 11: Air India “Kashmir Princess” (Lockheed Constellation) went down on the sea near Natuna Island, Indonesia after a bomb explosion, killing 16 people. The plane was chartered by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government for carrying an official delegation to Bandung Conference in Bandung, Indonesia. Possible suspects include a Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) secret agent who put the bomb in the aircraft during transit in Hong Kong intending to kill PRC Prime Minister Zhou Enlai.
1955 August 28: Lynching of Emmett Louis Till in Mississippi.
1955, August: Members of the Algerian FLN massacre civilians in the town of Philippeville.
1956 September 30: The FLN sets off bombs at the office of Air France and elsewhere in Algiers.
1958 October 12: Bombing of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple Atlanta, Georgia suspicion done by white racists.
[edit] 1960s
1960 March 4: Possible bombing of the Belgian ammunition carrier La Coubre in the port of Habana, killing over 30 people
1961 April 8: Omani terrorists blow up the passenger liner MV Dara, killing 238 people
1963: 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. A member of the Ku Klux Klan bombed a Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls aged 11-14.
1963 November 22: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated while riding in an open vehicle in Texas.
1965: The Ku Klux Klan murders Viola Liuzzo, a Southern-raised white mother of five who was visiting the South from her home in Detroit to attend a civil rights march. At the time of her murder Liuzzo was transporting Civil Rights Marchers.
1965: The Monumental Plot – New York Police thwart an attempt to dynamite the Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell, and the Washington Monument by three members of the pro Castro Black Liberation Front and a Quebec Separatist.[3]
1966 March 8: A group of former IRA men planted a bomb that destroyed Nelson’s Pillar in Dublin
1966: Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the IRA; on June 26 they commit three sectarian murders.
1966: NAACP leader Vernon Dahme assassinated by firebomb exploded by The Ku Klux Klan.
1966 September 22: A bazooka attack on the Cuban embassy in Ottawa is made.
1966 October 5: Anti-Castro forces bomb the offices of the Cuban trade delegation in Ottawa.
1967: May – December: In the Hong Kong 1967 riots, evolved from civil disobedience to terrorism. Leftists killed at least 51 people including eleven policemen, a bomb expert of the British forces and a fireman, through murders or bombs.
1968: Spring During a student rebellion at Columbia University members of the Students for a Democratic Society and Student Afro-American Society held a Dean hostage demanding an end to both military research on campus and construction of a gymnasium in nearby Harlem.[4]
1968 June 6: Senator Robert F. Kennedy assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan.
1968, August: Prior to Democratic Convention that year in Chicago Yippie party cofounder Abbie Hoffman threatened to spike the water of that city with LSD.[5]
1968 December 26: Two Palestinian gunmen travel from Beirut to Athens, and attack an El Al jet there, killing one person
1969 February 13: the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) set off a powerful bomb that ripped through the Montreal Stock Exchange causing massive destruction and seriously injuring 27 people.
1969 December 12: Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan, killing 16 people.
[edit] 1970s
[edit] 1970
February 21: A bomb explodes in the rear of Swissair Flight 330, causing it to crash near Zürich, Switzerland, killing 38 passengers and all nine crew members. The attack was carried out by Palestinian terrorist group PFLP
, , March 31: Japan Airlines Flight 351, carrying 131 passengers and 7 crew from Tokyo to Fukuoka, is hijacked by nine members of the Japanese Red Army group. 23 passengers were freed at Fukuoka Airport, mainly children or old aged. 108 passengers and all crew members with Red Army group are leaved Fukuoka, bound for Gimpo Airport, near Seoul, South Korea. Three days after, Red Army group ask to be flown to North Korean capital Pyongyang, before leave from Seoul, 103 passengers and crews hostages are freed, and nine Red Army group surrendered to North Korean authorities.
May 8: Avivim school bus attacks by Palestinian PLO members, killing nine children and three adults and crippling 19 children.
August 24: the Army Mathematics Research Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus was blown up resulting in one death
September 6: Coordinated hijacking of four airliners. One hijacking is foiled in midair and two planes are diverted to Jordan’s Dawson Field. Nicaraguan hijacker Sandinista Patrick Arguello was killed and all passengers were freed after negotiated release of captured hijacker Leila Khaled and three PFLP prisoners. The following day a fifth aircraft was also hijacked. See Dawson’s Field hijackings, Black September in Jordan.
October 5 – 17: October Crisis (Quebec): FLQ murder of Pierre Laporte, kidnapping of James Cross.
October 22: An antipersonnel time bomb explodes outside a San Francisco church, showering steel shrapnel on mourners of a patrolman slain in a bank holdup; no one is injured. The Black Liberation Army is suspected.[6]
1970-1972: The Jewish Defense League was linked with a bomb explosion outside of Aeroflot’s New York City office, and a detonation outside of Soviet cultural offices in Washington. Also a JDL member allegedly fired a rifle into the Soviet Union’s mission office at the United Nations. Two JDL members were convicted of bomb possession and burglary in a conspiracy to blow up the Long Island residence of the Soviet Mission to the UN.
[edit] 1971
During this year, The Black Liberation Army is suspected of killing three policemen (one at his desk), shooting four others, opening fire on three patrol cars and rolling a grenade which heavily damaged a police car and injured two officers. An attempt is made to bomb a police station. These incidents happen in various cities around the country. In August the group runs a one month long guerrilla warfare school in Fayetteville, Georgia. Seven arrested in January 2007 in relation to the shooting of the policeman at his desk.[6][7]
October 31: A bomb explodes in the Post Office Tower in London causing extensive damage but no injuries. The “Kilburn Battalion” of the IRA claimed responsibility for the explosion.[8]
December 4: In the McGurk’s Bar bombing, an Ulster Volunteer Force bomb in Belfast’s North Queen Street kills 15 people.
[edit] 1972
January 26: Yugoslavian Airlines Flight 364 is brought down by an explosion. Officially a bomb was placed on the plane by Ustasa agents, but it’s speculated that the plane was downed by two Czechoslovak SA-12 surface-to-air missiles because it has entered a restricted military area without permission. The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 airplane is destroyed and 27 of 28 passengers die. One stewardess survives a 10,160 meter (33,330 ft) drop.
January 27: Two policemen, Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie, are shot in the back by at least three persons; four suspects in the case are members of the Black Liberation Army; one suspect is later killed in a street battle with St. Louis police; the recovered pistol matches Laurie’s.[6]
February 19: A stand off five Japanese United Red Army and many Japanese police, riot controller begin taking the 31 years-old wife has hostarged lodge house at Karuizawa, Japan, where continue to ten days.
February 22: The Official Irish Republican Army kills seven civilians in Aldershot after it bombs a British military barracks.
February 28: In Karuizawa, Japan, Japanese authority move to rescue hostarge, 640 minutes ago, 31 years-old wife has freed by rescue authority, however, occurred between satndoff five Japanese United Red Army and authority, where two policemen killed, 12 injured.
April 4: Cuban official Sergio Pérez Castillo is killed by an explosion at the Cuban consulate at Montreal.
May 30: Lod Airport Massacre by the Japanese Red Army terrorists, killing 26 and injuring 78.
July 21: Bloody Friday nine are killed and 130 injured as Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) sets off 22 bombs.
Four PLO terrorists hijacked a Sabena airliner carrying 99 passengers and ten crew members on route from Brussels to Tel Aviv. In a mission titled “Operation Isotope”, 16 members of Sayeret Matkal posed as refueling and technical personnel and stormed the plane, killing the terrorists and releasing the passengers.
July 31: Claudy bombings; three car bombs are detonated in Claudy killing nine people. No group has claimed responsibility.
September 5: Black September kidnaps and kills eleven Israeli Olympic athletes and one German policeman in the Munich Massacre.
September 19: The group Black September post a letter bomb to the Israeli embassy in London killing an Israeli diplomat.[9]
October 27: Police car bombing in Los Angeles claimed by Afro American Liberation Army.[6]
1972 December: A travel agency in Queens, New York is bombed; the incident is attributed to FIN, a Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro.[citation needed]
1972 December 11: New York City. The VA-Cuba Forwarding Company is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.[citation needed]
December 28: A Brooklyn, New York bartender is held for $12000 ransom by the Black Liberation Army.[6]
[edit] 1973
January 7: After shooting a police officer a week earlier, Mark Essex, a former Black Panther party member shot nineteen people (ten of them police officers) in retaliation for police killings at a Howard Johnsons hotel in New Orleans. In addition, he also set fires in the hotel before being killed by police.
A New York City transit detective is killed and ten law enforcement personnel are shot, four by machine gun, during the year mostly in and around New York City by the Black Liberation Army. Also two members of that organization are arrested with a car full of explosives. In the next few years there are a number of violent incidents involving this organization but they are more criminal in nature.[6]
March 1: Black September takes ten hostages (five of them diplomats) at the Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum, Sudan. Three western diplomats are killed.
May 17: The IRA kills 5 British soldiers in a roadside bomb attack in Tullyvallen, Northern Ireland.[10]
September 1: A man blows himself up inside Lenin Mausoleum on Moscow’s Red Square. Two women standing next to him also died.[11]
September 10: The IRA set off bombs at Londons King’s Cross Station and Euston Station injuring 21 people.[12]
September 28: Chopin-Express: Two Arab terrorists hijack the Chopin-Express from Moscow to Vienna at the East-West border in Marchegg. The train is often used by Jewish exilants from the USSR. The terrorists demand the closure of an Austrian transit camp for Jews on their way to Israel. Chancellor Kreisky (Jewish himself) complies and allows the terrorists to evade to Libya.
December 14: The Algerian consulate in Marseilles was bombed by the anti-Arab Charles Martel Group. Four people were killed and another twenty were injured in the bombing.[13]
December 17: Pan Am Flight 110: 30 passengers were killed when phosphorus bombs are thrown aboard the aircraft as it prepares for departure.
December 20: Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco is assassinated in Madrid by ETA.
[edit] 1974
January 20: Two IRA volunteers hijack a helicopter from Donegal in the Irish Republic and use it to drop bombs on a British Barracks in Strabane, Northern Ireland.
January 31: Laju incident: JRA–PFLP attack on a Shell facility in Singapore and the simultaneous seizure of the Japanese embassy in Kuwait.
February 4: Twelve people (9 soldiers & 3 civilians) are killed by the IRA in the M62 Coach Bombing.
April 11: Kiryat Shmona massacre at an apartment building by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine members, killing 18 people, nine of whom were children.
May 15: Ma’alot massacre at the Ma’alot High School in Northern Israel by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine members: 26 of the hostages were killed, 66 wounded.
May 17: Ulster Volunteer Force detonate three car bombs in Dublin and one in Monaghan; 35 dead – killing 35 civilians, the deadliest toll of any one day in Ireland’s ‘Troubles’.
May 28: Eight people are killed and at least 90 wounded when a bomb placed in a rubbish bin explodes in the Piazza della Loggia bombing.
June 17: The IRA plant a bomb which explodes at the Houses of Parliament, London, causing extensive damage and injuring eleven people.[14]
August 4: Italicus Express train between Roma and Brennero explodes, killing twelve and injuring 44. Attributed to fascist group Ordine nero.
August 30: Powerful bomb explodes at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan. 8 killed, 378 injured. Eight left-wing activists are arrested May 19, 1975 by Japanese authorities.
September 8: TWA Flight 841: Bomb kills 88 on jetliner. Attributed to Abu Nidal and his terrorist organization.
September 13: Basque ETA group bombs the “Rolando” cafeteria in Madrid and kills twelve people.
October 5: Guildford pub bombing by the IRA leaves four off duty soldiers and a civilian dead and 44 injured.
October 22: A bomb planted by the Provisional IRA explodes in London injuring three people.[15]
November 21: Birmingham pub bombing by the IRA kills 21, 182 people are injured.
December 11: A bomb set off by the Puerto Rican nationalist group FALN in East Harlem, New York permanently disables a police officer. The officer lost an eye as a result of this act.
[edit] 1975
January 24: FALN bomb the Fraunces Tavern, killing four and injuring more than 50.
February 26: London police officer Stephen Tibble, 22, is shot dead as he chases an IRA gunman escaping from a bomb factory.
March 2: Air Algerie’s office in Toulouse and Lyons were bombed by the Charles Martel Group. No one was killed or injured in either attack. [16]
March 5: In the Savoy Operation PLO gunmen from Lebanon take dozens of hostages at the Tel Aviv Savoy Hotel eventually killing eight hostages and three IDF soldiers, and wounding eleven hostages.
April 19: FALN sets off four bombs within a forty minute period in Manhattan, New York injuring at least five people.
April 24: RAF occupies West Germany’s embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, and blows up the building before surrendering to the Swedish police.
July 31: Three members of Ireland’s popular Miami Showband killed in Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) gun attack in Co. Down.
December 1975: Carlos the Jackal and his rebels attack OPEC headquarters in Vienna, Austria and take over 60 hostages – mostly they were OPEC countries’ leaders. On December 22 the hostages and rebels are transported in a DC-9 to Algiers where 30 hostages were freed; the plane was then flown to Tripoli, Libya where more hostages were freed before flying back to Algiers where the remaining hostages were freed and the rebels were granted asylum.
December 14: In the Netherlands, near Beilen, a passenger train was hijacked by members of the RMS movement, passengers were kept hostage. Three passengers were killed by the hijackers.
December 23: American CIA Station Chief Richard Welch was shot dead outside his home in Athens by Marxist terrorist group Revolutionary Organization 17 November. Welch’s murder led to the passage of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, making it illegal to reveal the name of an agent who has a covert relationship with an American intelligence organization.
December 29: Bomb explodes at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, killing eleven and injuring 75. No arrests ever made in this case and the reason for this attack remains unknown.
[edit] 1976
January 5: The IRA operating under the cover name of the South Armagh Republican Action Force, kill ten Unionist workers in the Kingsmill massacre, County Armagh in retaliation for the killing of six Nationalists by loyalist paramilitaries
February 3: Somali Coast Liberation Front hijack a school bus in Djibouti, killing one girl.
May 9: Far right gunmen (including Stefano Delle Chiaie) kill two left-wing Carlists in Montejurra.
June 26–July 4: Hijacking of Air France Flight 139 (Tel Aviv-Paris) by Palestinian PFLP and German Revolutionäre Zellen; see Operation Entebbe: four hostages, one Sayeret Matkal soldier and 45 Ugandian soldiers killed.
July 21: An IRA landmine kills Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the newly appointed British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, and his secretary Judith Cook.
September 10-September 11: Croatian Freedom Fighters hijack a TWA airliner diverting it to Gander, Newfoundland, and then Paris demanding a manifesto be printed. One police officer was killed and three injured during an attempt to defuse a bomb that contained their communiques in a New York City train station locker.[17]
September 21: Orlando Letelier assassinated in Washington by Chilean government.
October 6: Cubana Flight 455 was bombed while flying from Barbados to Havana, killing 73 passengers plus crew members. Anti-Castro exiles with suspected ties to the CIA are involved, among them Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles. Victims included six Guyanese medical students and the entire Cuban youth fencing team.[18]
December 4: In the Netherlands, members of the RMS movement occupy the Indonesian diplomatic consulate in The Hague. One Indonesian official is killed.
[edit] 1977
January 8: A bomb goes off on a Moscow subway train as it rolls into Kurskaya station. Seven die and 33 are seriously injured in the incident, attributed to Armenian terrorists.[11]
January 27: Atocha massacre in Spain. Far-right members kill five in a shooting.
March 9: Three buildings in Washington, DC are seized by members of the militant African-American Muslim Hanafi sect and over 100 hostages taken. One bystander is shot and killed, and Washington city councilman Marion Barry is shot in the chest. After a two-day standoff all hostages are released from the District Building (city hall), B’nai B’rith headquarters, and the Islamic Center.
April 7: Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver were shot by two Red Army Faction members.
May 23: School hostage crisis in the Netherlands. RMS activists kept 105 children and five teachers hostage in a school in Smilde.
June 2: Three members of a RUC Police Force mobile patrol are shot and killed by IRA snipers near Ardboe, County Tyrone. Part of ongoing attacks on Police and Army.
June 11: Train hostage crisis in the Netherlands. Near Groningen, a passenger train was hijacked by members of the RMS, 55 passengers were kept hostage. In an army attack six hijackers and two passengers were killed.
July 30: Jürgen Ponto, then head of the Dresdner Bank, was shot and killed by the Red Army Faction in a failed kidnapping.
August 3: Puerto Rican nationalist group FALN in Manhattan, New York bombs the offices of Mobil and a building containing Defense Department security personal killing one and injuring eight in the Mobil offices. In addition the group warned that bombs were located in thirteen other buildings, including the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center resulting in the evacuation of one hundred thousand. Five days later a bomb attributed to the group was found in the AMEX building.[19]
September 5: Hanns Martin Schleyer was kidnapped by the Red Army Faction. He was murdered by the Red Army Faction on October 19, 1977.
October 13: Lufthansa flight LH 181 was kidnapped by a group of four PFLP to Mogadishu it was freed by GSG 9 commando group.
[edit] 1978
Members of the Arab Revolutionary Council poison Israeli oranges with mercury, injuring at least twelve people and reducing exports by 40 percent.[20]
1978–1995: The Unabomber kills three and injures 29 in a string of anti-technology bombings.
February 13: Hilton bombing: A bomb is detonated outside the CHOGM meeting in Sydney, Australia, killing two people. Three Ananda Marga members are later arrested and jailed for the attack, but later released due to lack of proof.
February 17: The IRA kill twelve people in the La Mon Restaurant Bombing.
March: In the Netherlands members of the RMS movement occupy a provincial office in Assen. 67 persons were held hostage, one official was killed on the spot, another died of injuries a month later.
March 11: Coastal Road massacre: Fatah gunmen killed several tourists and hijack a bus near Haifa; 37 Israelis on the bus are killed.
March 16 – May 9: The Red Brigade kidnap Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro and assassinate him 55 days later.
[edit] 1979
March 22: The IRA kill Richard Sykes, then British Ambassador to the Netherlands, and his Dutch valet, Krel Straub, in a gun attack in Den Haag, Netherlands. The IRA also carried out 24 bomb attacks across Northern Ireland
March 30: A car bomb explodes in the Palace of Westminster car park killing the driver. The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) claimed responsibility for the killing. (see Airey Neave)
July: Norwegian police prevents terrorist attacks against the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Oslo, Norway.
June 9: Puerto Rican nationalist organization FALN exploded a bomb outside of the Shubert Theatre in Chicago, injuring five people.
July 29: Basque ETA members bomb two railway stations in Madrid, killing seven.
August 27: Lord Mountbatten and three others are killed by IRA bomb on board his boat off Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo. The same day two IRA bombs kill 18 British soldiers near Warrenpoint. After the explosions a heavy gun battle ensued between the soldiers and the attackers firing from their position inside the border with the Republic of Ireland. One British tourist was accidentally fired upon by British forces and killed.
2 November: Sunni militant group of 1,300 to 1,500 men seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca Saudi Arabia.
November 15: American Airlines Flight 444 is attacked by the Unabomber – his bomb gives off large quantities of smoke but fails to detonate.
[edit] 1980s
[edit] 1980
January 14, 1980: A large explosion significantly damages the Cuban consulate in Montreal.
February 27: Dominican embassy siege: Guerrillas from M-19 take diplomats hostage at the Dominican embassy in Bogotá, Colombia. After 61 days, all are released on April 27.
March 15: armed members of FALN raided the campaign headquarters of President Jimmy Carter in Chicago and the campaign headquarters of George H. W. Bush in New York City. Seven people in Chicago and ten people in New York were tied up as the offices were vandalized before the FALN members fled. A few days later, Carter delegates in Chicago received threatening letters from FALN.
March 24: Archbishop Óscar Romero assassinated by death squads in El Salvador.
June 3: A bomb destroys most of the exhibits in the Statue of Liberty story room. No one is arrested, but Croatian separatists are suspected.
July 27: A member of the Abu Nidal Organization carried out a grenade attack on a group of Jews waiting for a bus in Antwerp, Belgium, killing a child and wounding twenty others. Said Al Nasr will be convicted for this act.
August 2: Strage di Bologna: Terrorists of the far-right group NAR at the railway station in Bologna, Italy kills 85 people and wounds more than 200.
October 3: Four congregants were killed and twelve others injured in a bomb attack on the rue Copernic synagogue in Paris, France. Responsibility was claimed by the National European Fascists (FNE), but the police investigation concluded that Palestinian terrorists were involved.
[edit] 1981
May 16: One dead in an explosion in the toilets at the Pan Am terminal at New York’s JFK airport. The bombing is claimed by the Puerto Rican Resistance Army.[21]
June 10: Eight IRA prisoners shoot their way out of the Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast, using 3 handguns they had smuggled in.
August 29: Machine gun and grenade attack on the Stadttempel synagogue in Vienna, killing two people and wounding 23. Marwan Hasan and Hesham Mohammed Rajeh were convicted.
October 6: Assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat by Islamic Jihad.
October 20: Attack on a synagogue in Antwerp, Belgium, killing three and wounding sixty.
[edit] 1982
March 29: A bomb on board the Paris-Toulouse train kills five and injures 27 people. Carlos assumed to be responsible.
July 20: The Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings in London by the IRA kill eleven members of the Household Cavalry and the Royal Green Jackets.
August 7: A bomb is set off in Ankara airport, killing nine people and wounding 70. Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia claims responsibility.
August 9: Rue des Rosiers, Paris gunning and bombing of Goldenberg restaurant: six killed and 22 wounded – Fatah – the Revolutionary Council
August 11: A bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 830, enroute from Tokyo to Honolulu, killing one teenager and injuring 15 passengers.
September 14: Assassination of Lebanese President Bashir Gemayel and twenty-five others in a car explosion at the Kataeb headquarters.
September 18: Four people are wounded when a synagogue in Brussels is attacked in a “shoot and run” incident. Guards were taken by surprise and the gunman, believed to be from the Abu Nidal Organization, escaped.
October 9: Attack with grenades and machine guns on the central synagogue in Rome, Italy. A child dies, ten people are injured.
October 14: Direct Action bombs a Litton Industries factory.
November 30: A group called the Animal Rights Militia send a letter bomb to Margaret Thatcher at 10 Downing Street, London the device exploded injuring one person.[22]
December 6: Ballykelly disco bombing in which Irish National Liberation Army kills seventeen soldiers and civilians in Northern Ireland.
[edit] 1983
April 18: U.S. Embassy Bombing in Beirut, Lebanon kills 63.
July 15: Turkish airline counter in the Orly Airport is bombed, killing eight people and wounding over 50.Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia claims responsibility.
September 25: Thirty Eight IRA prisoners shoot their way out of the maximum security Long Kesh prison. A prison officer is killed and six others injured.
September 23: Gulf Air Flight 771 is bombed, killing all 117 people on board.
October 1: The Algerian pavilion at an international trade fair in Marseilles was bombed by the Charles Martel Group. One person was killed and twenty-six were injured. [23]
October 9: Rangoon bombing by North Koreans targets South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan, killing 21 persons and injuring 48.
October 23: Marine Barracks Bombing in Beirut kills 241 U.S. Marines. 58 French troops from the multinational force are also killed in a separate attack.
November 9: U.S. Senate bombing. A time bomb consisting of several sticks of dynamite explodes at the United States Senate in response to the U.S. invasion of Grenada. No one was injured, a group known as the Armed Resistance Unit claims responsibility.
December 17: Harrods was bombed by the IRA. Six were killed (including three police officers) and 90 wounded during Christmas shopping at the West London department store. (See 17 December 1983 Harrods bombing)
December 31: On the way to New Year’s Eve seven persons are killed and 70 wounded by bombs on the Marseille to Paris TGV and at the St-Charles station in Marseille. The attack is attributed to Carlos on behalf of the O.L.A.
[edit] 1984
The Rajneeshee cult spreads salmonella in salad bars at ten restaurants in The Dalles, Oregon to influence a local election. Health officials say that 751 people were sickened and more than 40 hospitalized.[20] See also 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack
March 7: three killed and nine injured in the bombing of a civilian bus in Ashdod.
April 2: 48 people are wounded by a machine gun attack on a crowded shopping mall in Jerusalem.
September 20: U.S. embassy annex bombed in Beirut killing 20.
October 12: Brighton hotel bombing by the IRA: five are killed in an attempt to kill members of the British cabinet.
October 31: Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. The killing was in retaliation for the Indian army’s entry into the Golden Temple at Amritsar to flush out Sikh extremists who were using the temple as a base for their operations.
December 23: A bomb placed on the Naples-Milan Express train 904 explodes in the same tunnel as the Italicus Expressen massacre, killing 17 and wounding 250. The attack is attributed to mafia.
[edit] 1985
February 23: Paris Marks & Spencer shop, one bomb, one dead, 18 wounded, attributed to pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah.
February 28: IRA mortar attack kills nine police officers in Newry.
March 8: Car bomb explodes in Beirut, killing 80, injuring 175; allegedly planned and executed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency.[24]
March 9: Paris, Cinema Rivoli, 18 injured, pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah
June 14: TWA Flight 847 skyjacking, Hezbollah, see FBI Most Wanted Terrorists. Terrorists take passengers of an Athens-Rome flight hostage, murdering US Navy Seaman, Robert Stethem.
April 25: Lord Justice Maurice Gibson and his wife Lady Cecily Gibson are assassinated by an IRA radio-controlled bomb in Killeen, South Armagh.
May 14: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam massacre 146 Sinhalese civilians in the Anuradhapura massacre.[25] This remains one of the largest massacres of civilians carried out by any terrorist group to-date. This was also the deadliest terrorist attack in Sri Lankan history.
June 19: Zona Rosa Attacks Four United States Marines, two United States businessmen, a Guatemalan, a Chilean, and four Salvadorans were killed in a machine gun attack in the Zona Rosa area of San Salvador, El Salvador. The groups responsible for carrying out the attack were the Central American Revolutionary Workers’ *Party (PRTC) and its terrorist arm, the Mardoqueo Cruz Urban Commando (CMC)
June 22: Air India Flight 182 is blown up by a bomb put onboard the flight from Canada to India by unknown terrorists. All 329 people on board, most of them Canadian citizens, are killed. At the time, the deadliest terrorist attack ever, and still the deadliest act of terrorism in Canadian history. A second Air India flight from Canada was targeted on the same day, but the bomb exploded at the Tokyo airport, in the luggage outside the aircraft, killing two baggage handlers, bringing the total death toll of the act to 331.
July 10: Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior bombed in Auckland harbour by operatives from the French foreign intelligence agency (DGSE), killing one person.
July 22: Two near-simultaneous bombs in Copenhagen, at the Jewish synagogue and at the offices of Northwest Orient, explode, killing one and injuring 32. The bombers are interrupted while placing a third, more powerful, bomb, which they later dispose of in the city’s harbour. The bombs are later linked to Islamic Jihad.
and October 7 – October 10: Achille Lauro cruise ship hijacking by Palestinian Liberation Front, during which passenger Leon Klinghoffer is shot dead.
October 11: Arab anti-discrimination group leader Alex Odeh is killed when a bomb explodes in his Santa Ana, California office.
November 6: Palace of Justice siege: M-19 guerrillas seize the Supreme Court building in Bogotá, Colombia. The next day, an operation to free the hostages leaves some 100 people dead.
November 23: EgyptAir Flight 648 hijacked by Abu Nidal group, flown to Malta, where Egyptian commandos storm plane; 60 are killed by gunfire and explosions.
December 7: Paris, Galeries Lafayette and Printemps shops, two bombs, 51 injured, attributed to pro-Iranian Lebanese Hizbollah
December 27: Rome and Vienna Airport Attacks.
Investigators associated with the WHO reported that U.S.-funded Contras repeatedly destroyed health-care facilities and murdered health-care workers in Nicaraqua.
In the Amanzimtoti bombing on 23 December 1985, MK cadre Andrew Sibusiso Zondo detonated an explosive in a rubbish bin at the Sanlam shopping centre. Five people died in the blast and more than forty were injured.
[edit] 1986
A bomb place on a bus in the West Bank kills one and severely injures three. A Jordanian Mahmoud Mahmoud Atta is arrested, extradited to Israel, convicted, sentenced to life in prison and freed by the Israeli Supreme Court. After the September 11 attacks, he was confused with ringleader Egyptian Mohammed Atta.[26]
February 3: Paris, Claridge passage (Champs Élysées) seven injured, another bomb failed to explode in the Eiffel tower, pro-Iranian (Fouad Ali Saleh group)
February 4: Paris, Gibert book shop, seven injured, Fouad Ali Saleh
February 5: Paris, FNAC-sports, 15 injured
March 17: TGV Paris, nine injured
March 20: Paris, Galerie Point-Show bombed, two dead, 21 injured
April 2: TWA Flight 840 bombed on approach to Athens airport; four passengers (all of them American), including an infant, are killed.
April 6: the La Belle discotheque in Berlin, a known hangout for U.S. soldiers, was bombed, killing three and injuring 230 people, for which Libya is held responsible. In retaliation, the US bombs Libya in Operation El Dorado Canyon, hitting civilian targets and killing at least 100 people,[27] while trying to kill Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi, who survived the attack.
May 3: A bomb explodes aboard a Sri Lankan airliner in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 21 and injuring 40
June 14: ANC bombs Why Not Restaurant and Magoo’s Bar in Durban, South Africa, three people killed, 73 wounded.
July 15: ETA Basque militant group bombs a Guardia Civil police truck, killing twelve.
September 5: Pan Am Flight 73, an American civilian airliner, is hijacked; 22 people die when plane is stormed in Karachi, Pakistan.
September 8: Paris town hall’s post office bombed, one dead, 16 injured
September 12: Paris La Défense, Casino Supermarket’s restaurant bombed, 43 injured
September 14: Paris, Pub Renault bombed, two dead, one injured
September 15: Paris, police headquarters bombed, one dead, 45 injured
September 17: Paris, Rue de Rennes a bomb explodes in the street, seven dead, 54 injured.
December 25: Iraqi Airways Flight 163 is hijacked. The pro-Iranian group “Islamic Jihad” claimed responsibility.
December 31: New Year’s Eve fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, claimed 97 lives, mainly in the casino area. Fire set by three hotel workers, trying to make tourists stay away from Puerto Rico as a protest to their working wages.
[edit] 1987
April 21: Car bomb at bus terminal in Colombo, Sri Lanka kills 110 people.[28] This attack carried out by Sri Lankan Tamil terrorists belonging to the LTTE.
April 25: Bombing of Greek Air Force bus carrying American military personnel. A group called November 17 claims responsibility.[29]
May 8: An assault by an IRA team on Loughgall RUC base is stopped by SAS commandos, who kill eight attackers and a civilian. See Loughgall Ambush.
June 6: The LTTE massacres 33 monks and their mentor, Chief Priest Ven. Hegoda Indrasara, at Aranthalawa in Eastern Sri Lanka.[30]
June 19: Basque militant group ETA plant a bomb in the parking lot under the Hipercor hypermarket in Barcelona. It kills 21, 45 are injured.
November 8: Remembrance Day Bombing parade in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh by the IRA. Eleven are killed and 63 injured.
November 29: KAL Flight 858 bombed by North Korea.
December 11: Basque militant group ETA bomb a Guardia Civil police barracks in Zaragoza, killing eleven, 40 are injured.
[edit] 1988
April 12: Japanese Red Army terrorist Yu Kikumura was arrested at a rest stop on the New Jersey turnpike in possession of pipe bombs on his way to New York.[31]
March 6:An attempted attack on an army band by the Provisional IRA is foiled by the SAS.
March 16: Michael Stone kills three mourners in a gun and grenade attack on an IRA funeral in Belfast.[32]
March 19: During the funeral of IRA member Kevin Brady, killed in the cemetery attack by Michael Stone, a car approached the funeral procession at high speed. The car was surrounded by mourners, and two men later identified as corporals in the British Army were overpowered, dragged from the car, taken to waste ground and shot dead by the IRA
June: The IRA shoots down a British army helicopter in Northern Ireland[33]
June 15: Six British soldiers are killed by an IRA booby trap bomb attached to their vehicle in Market Square, Lisburn.
June 28: American diplomat, and defense naval attache Captain William Nordeen was assassinated by Marxist terrorist group Revolutionary Organization 17 November by a remote controlled car bomb in Athens.
Wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland. August 25: Planet Hollywood restaurant in Cape Town South Africa bombed killing 1 and injuring 26.[34]
December 21: Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. At the time, it was the worst act of terrorism perpetrated against the United States, and involved the greatest number of peacetime fatalities (270) in the United Kingdom. Just over 12 years after the event, at the conclusion of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial, a Libyan agent, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, was convicted on 270 counts of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Libya subsequently agreed to pay relatives of the Lockerbie bombing victims $2.7 billion ($10 million each) in compensation.
[edit] 1989
May 30: A bomb kills four and injures 37 on an assassination attempt against Miguel Maza Marquez head of the Colombian Secret Service.[35]
July 5: A car bomb kills six, including the governor of Antioquia, Antonio Roldan Betancur. No claim is made for the attack.[36]
July 9: Two bombs explode in Mecca, killing one pilgrim and wounding 16 others.
August 18: The Medellín Cartel declares “total and absolute war” against the Colombian government. The offices of the two main political parties were bombed and the homes of two local politicians were burned.[37]
August 31: A bomb in a bicycle cart injures 13 in Medellín.[38]
September 2: A bomb partially destroys the headquarters of El Espectador, a Colombian newspaper, leaving 84 wounded. Bomb is blamed on Pablo Escobar
September 4: A bomb detonates in front of the Intercontinental Hotel in Medellín.[39]
September 4: An unidentified man opens fire at the Medellín airport, killing one and wounding 14, before being gunned down by the police.[40]
September 16: A bomb explodes on a bus bound from Tbilisi to Baku, USSR when it passes near Yevlakh, Azerbaijan, killing five people and wounding 27.
September 18: Five bombs kill twelve people in Medellín during the ongoing war the Medellín Cartel declared on the Colombia government. On the same day, the Pablo Escobar has liberal leader Pablo Pelaez Gonzalez assassinated.[41]
September 18: Three bombs explode in Cali killing one person.[42]
September 19: Suitcase-bomb destroys UTA Flight UT-772 en route to Paris, killing all 171 passengers and crew. Libyan intelligence involved.
September 21: The Medellín Cartel claims responsibility for the car bomb attack to the Colombian Liberal Party’s offices in downtown Bogotá
September 22: Deal barracks bombing: Eleven Royal Marines bandsmen are killed and 22 injured when base in Deal, Kent, is bombed by the IRA.
September 25: A bomb kills two and injures one at the Hilton hotel in Cartagena.[43]
September 26: Liberal Greek politician Pavlos Bakoyannis who was well known for his broadcasts against the Greek military junta of 1967-1974 on Deutsche Welle radio, was shot and killed in the front entrance of his office in by members of the Marxist terrorist group Revolutionary Organization 17 November.
September 28: A bomb kills two at a suburban gas station in Bogotá. The dead are believed to be terrorists.[44]
September 29: A bomb injures one at the parking garage of the Intercontinental Hotel in Bogotá. The attack was blamed on the Medellín Cartel.[45]
October 8: A fire bomb kills seven and injures seven in a bus in Bogotá. The action is blamed on the Medellín Cartel.[46]
October 9: Ten bombs go off in two Colombian cities, injuring 32. The bombs coincide with the visit of a senior US Army officer on talks about drug control.[47]
October 16: A car bomb against the Vanguardia Liberal newspaper kills four in Bucaramanga.[48]
October 18: A bomb explodes prematurely outside the Colombian Congress, injuring one.[49]
October 21: A car bomb in front of a hotel in Barranquilla leaves six injured.[50]
October 30: A bomb hidden beneath a bus kills five police officer and injures 15 more in Medellín. The drug lords are believed responsible.[51]
November 27: Avianca Flight 203 bombed over Colombia; 110 victims. Medellín drug cartel claimed responsibility.
December 6: Truck bomb kills 52 and injures 1,000 outside the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS) building near downtown Bogotá, Colombia; blast is blamed on drug lord Pablo Escobar and it’s widely believed to be an assassination attempt on the director of DAS, Miguel Maza Marquez.
December 6: Anti-feminist Marc Lépine shoots 26 people, killing 14 women, at the École Polytechnique de Montréal – the event is dubbed the Montreal massacre.
December 13: Two British soldiers are killed near Rosslea, County Fermanagh when an IRA unit burns them alive with a flamethrower.
[edit] 1990s
[edit] 1990
January 6: A car bomb explodes outside private offices in Bogotá. While no casualties are reported, the office belonged to the son of the personal secretary of Colombian president, Virgilio Barco.[52]
February: The IRA detonate a bomb at Leicester Army Recruiting Office. MP Keith Vaz suggests that the army may have planted the bomb.[53]
February 12: The IRA shoot down a British army helicopter in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, near the border with the Irish Republic.[54]
April 6: Colombian police defuse a truck containing more than a half-ton of explosives in a wealthy residential area of Bogotá. The truck had been parked in front of a high school and was set to go off during the morning rush.[55]
April 11: A bomb kills 14 and injures 100 in Medellín. The bomb was directed at a group of Elite Police and it is blamed on the Medellín Cartel, which had offered $100,000 for every anti-terrorism police killed and $ 4,500 for every regular policeman assassinated.[56]
April 25: A car bomb kills nine in Medellín. Authorities believe the Medellín Cartel is responsible. The next day, presidential candidate Carlos Pizarro Leongómez is assassinated while onboard a commercial airliner.[57]
April 25: A bomb hidden in a dump truck kills six and injures at least 36 in Bogotá.[58]
May 4: A bomb exploded in front of a pharmacy in Cali, killing four and wounding 20. It is blamed on the ongoing war between the two rival drug cartels in Colombia.
May 7: A car bomb kills one and injures five, outside a government building in Pereira, capital of Risaralda State. No group claims responsibility but the government blames drug lords who declared war on the country nine months earlier.[59]
May 13: Two car bombs explode simultaneously in the Quirigua and Niza shopping malls during Mother’s Day in Bogotá killing 19, including six children, and wounding 140, while another bomb exploded in a restaurant in Cali, killing six and injuring 20. Authorities say the Medellín Cartel is to blame for the attacks.[60]
May 16 The IRA detonate a bomb under a military minibus in London, killing Sgt Charles Chapman, and injuring four other soldiers.[61]
May 17: A bomb inside a shopping mall in Cartagena wounds 22. The Medellín Cartel is blamed.[62]
May 25: A suicide bomber detonates a car bomb when stopped by police, killing himself and three others in Medellín.[63]
June 1: A British Royal Artillery officer is assassinated by the IRA in Dortmund in West Germany.[64]
June 15: A car bomb kills four near a police station in Medellín. Authorities blame the Medellín Cartel which had previously pledged to murder police in retaliation to the government’s anti-drug policies.[65]
June 29: A car bomb kills 14 and injures 30 in Medellín. The Medellín Cartel is blamed by authorities.[66]
July 15: A round of terrorist attacks leaves 40 dead in Medellín. Another bomb exploded in Puerto Asís, killing six and injuring five.[67]
July 20: The IRA detonate a bomb at the London Stock Exchange causing damage to the building. Nobody was injured in the blast.[68]
July 30: Ian Gow MP killed by a car bomb planted by the IRA while at his home in Sussex.
August 10: A bus going from Tbilisi, Georgia to Agdam, Azerbaijan is blown up. Twenty people die and 33 are injured.
October 24: A series of car bombings directed by the IRA in Northern Ireland leave six British soldiers and a civilian dead and 37 wounded.
PLF attack in the beaches on Tel Aviv.
PLO attack on the US embassy.
September: Rebels bomb two sections of Colombia’s Caño Limón pipeline. It is the fourth attack against the pipeline in two weeks, and rebel group ELN claims responsibility.[69]
November 5: Assassination of Meir Kahane head of Israel’s Koch party and founder of the American vigilante group the Jewish Defense League in a Manhattan, New York hotel lobby by early elements of Al Queda.
December 13: A remote control bomb kills seven police officer and injures 23 more in Medellín. Authorities blame the Medellín Cartel for the attack.[70]
[edit] 1991
January 6: A bomb kills three and wounds seven in La Dorada, Caldas. No group claims responsibility.[71]
February 7: The IRA launched a mortar shell into the back garden of 10 Downing Street, London. (See 10 Downing Street#Security)
February 16: The Medellín Cartel detonates a 440-pound car bomb near the Medellín bullring, killing 22 people, including 9 police officers.[72]
May 13: Nine police officers die while deactivating a bomb left behind by leftist guerillas.[73]
May 21: Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi assassinated in a bomb blast believed to be the work of Sri Lankan Tamil terrorists belonging to the LTTE.[28] This is also the first time that the suicide vest is used by any terrorist group.
May 29: Basque ETA terrorist group bombs the Guardia Civil police barracks in Vic (Barcelona), killing ten people.
May 30: A train traveling from Moscow to Baku explodes near Karvin-Yurt station between Gudermes and Makhachkala in Dagestan, Russia. Eleven people die and eight are injured.[74]
July 12: Leftist groups bomb the runway at the Rafael Núñez International Airport in Cartagena.[75]
[edit] 1992
January 17: Eight Protestant British army contractors are killed by an IRA bomb on their way to work at an Army base near Omagh.
February 5: Three civilians were killed and 29 injured by East Turkestan Islamic Movement two bus bombs in Urumqi (see: 5 February 1992 Urumqi Bombings)
February 28, 1992: A bomb explodes at London Bridge station injuring 29 people.
March 17: Israeli Embassy bombing by “Islamic Jihad” in Buenos Aires, Argentina; 29 killed, 242 injured.
April 5, 1992: The Iranian embassy in Ottawa is stormed by members of MEK, an Iraq-supported religious right group.
April 10, 1992: A large bomb explodes in St Mary Axe in the City of London killing three people and injuring 91. Many buildings are heavily damaged and the Baltic Exchange is completely destroyed.
September 1: Nine die, including a six-month old baby, and seven are injured when a bomb explodes in a suburb of Medellín.[76]
October 12, 1992: A device explodes in the gents’ toilet of the Sussex Arms public house in Covent Garden killing one person and injuring four others.
November 11: Bombs explode in nine Colombian cities, leaving one person dead and 35 injured. The Medellín Cartel is held responsible for the attacks.[77]
December 3: Ten police officers and four civilians die when a bomb planted by drug traffickers explode in Medellín.[78]
December 29: Two police officers and 50 civilians wounded when a car bomb explodes at a party in a suburban area of Medellín.[79]
[edit] 1993
January 7: A car bomb kills two and injures 39 in the parking lot of a building where several judges lived, in the city of Medellín.[80]
January 25: Mir Aimal Kansi, a Pakistani, fires an AK-47 assault rifle into cars waiting at a stoplight in front of the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters, killing two and injuring three others, see FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.
January 30: A bomb kills 20 in downtown Bogotá. The attack is blamed on drug leader Pablo Escobar.[81]
February 11: A bomb kills 14 and injures 25 at an auto repair shop in Barrancabermeja.[82]
February 22: Two powerful car bombs kill four and injure 100 in a commercial district and a shopping mall in Bogotá. The attacks are likely linked to drug traffickers waging war against the Colombian government.[83]
February 26: World Trade Center bombing kills six and injures over 1000 people, by coalition of five groups: Jamaat Al-Fuqra’/Gamaat Islamiya/Hamas/Islamic Jihad/National Islamic Front,[84] see FBI Most Wanted Terrorists, FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, Ramzi Yousef.
March 12: Mumbai car bombings in India leave 257 dead with 1,400 others injured.
March 17: A bomb blast in Calcutta killed at least 50 people. Two apartment blocks came crashing down when the blast rocked central Calcutta’s Bowbazar locality shortly after midnight.
March 19: A bomb exploded in the Calcutta’s Sealdah rail terminus, killing one person and wounding a dozen others
April 15: A bomb kills 15 and wounds over 100 at the Centro 93 shopping mall in Bogotá. Authorities blame Pablo Escobar.[85]
April 16: Hamas kill 2 in Mehola Junction bombing.
March 20: IRA bomb in Warrington kills two children (See Warrington Bomb Attacks).
April 24: IRA detonate a huge truck bomb in the City of London at Bishopsgate, killing two and causing approximately £1bn of damage.[86] (See 1993 Bishopsgate bombing.)
May 1: Suicide bomber in Colombo, Sri Lanka kills Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa. This is one of the few occasions in modern history in which an existing head of state has been assassinated by a terrorist group. Attack carried out by Sri Lankan Tamil terrorists belonging to the LTTE.[28]
May 27: A car-bomb placed by mafia in the neighbourhood of the Uffizi museum in Florence kills five people and wounds 40.
June: Failed New York City landmark bomb plot, see FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
June 21: ETA Basque terrorist group bombs a military truck in Madrid, kills seven, 36 injured.
July 5: the IRA detonate a 1500 lb car bomb (the largest used in Northern Ireland) in the centre of Newtownards in Northern Ireland, no one is killed but severe property damage is caused to the town centre.
July 27: Three car-bombs explode simultaneously and in a street in the center of Milan, killing five, and in front of two churches in Rome. The attack is attributed to mafia.
October 23: the Shankill Road bombing at a fish and chip shop on the Protestant Shankill Road, Belfast kills ten people, including two children.
October 30: Seven people killed in the Rising Sun Bar massacre, when Loyalist Ulster Freedom Fighters gunmen attack a bar in Greysteel, County Londonderry.
[edit] 1994
February 25: In the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, Baruch Goldstein kills 29 Palestinian civilians in an attack in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
March 1: In the Brooklyn Bridge Shooting, Rashid Baz kills a Hasidic seminary student and wounds four on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City in response to the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre.[87]
March 19: A handmade bomb explodes in Baku Metro in Baku, Azerbaijan, killing 14 and wounding 58.
March 20: The IRA shoot down a British army Lynx Helicopter over a military barracks in Crossmaglen with a barrack buster mortar.
June 28: Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult release sarin gas attack at Matsumoto, Japan, 7 persons killed, 660 injured.
July 3: A bomb explodes in Baku Metro, Azerbaijan, killing 13 and wounding 42.
June 18: Six Catholic men shot dead by Loyalists in a pub in Loughinisland, Co Down.
July 19: Alas Chiricanas Flight 00901 is bombed, killing 21. Generally attributed to Hezbollah.
July 26: Israeli Embassy Attack in London and a Jewish charity are car-bombed, wounding 20. Attributed by Britain, Argentina, and Israel to Hezbollah.
December 11: A small bomb explodes on board Philippine Airlines Flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman. Authorities found out that Ramzi Yousef planted the bomb to test it for his planned terrorist attack, see FBI Most Wanted Terrorists, FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
December 24: Air France Flight 8969 is hijacked by GIA members who planned to crash the plane on Paris but didn’t succeed.
[edit] 1995
January 6: Oplan Bojinka plot to bomb eleven U.S. airliners is discovered on a laptop computer in a Manila, Philippines apartment by authorities after an apartment fire occurred in the apartment, by Jemaah Islamiyah/Konsojaya/Abu Sayyaf Group/Ramzi Yousef/Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, see FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
March 8: Terrorists in Karachi, Pakistan, armed with automatic rifles, murdered two American consulate employees and wounded a third as they traveled in the consulate shuttle bus. See Rewards for Justice.
March 20: Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway by AUM Shinrikyo cultists kills twelve people and 5,510 injures.
April 19: ETA Basque militant group tries to kill José María Aznar (then leader of the Popular Party, later a Spanish Prime Minister) bombing his car, kills a woman.
April 19: Oklahoma City bombing kills 168 people, 19 of them children; the most deadly act of domestic terrorism in the United States to date.
May 6: A synagogue is bombed by terrorists in Riga.
June 11: Leftist group FARC claims responsibility for a bomb that kills 29 and injures 205 at a music concert in Medellín.[88]
June 14—June 19: Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis, 105 civilians and 25 Russian troops were killed.
July—October: Bombings in France by a GIA unit led by Khaled Kelkal kill eight and injure more than 100.
August 27: Suicide bomber in Colombo, Sri Lanka kills 24 civilians, injures 40. Attack carried out by Sri Lankan Tamil terrorists belonging to the LTTE.
October 9: An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by anti-government saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona. One person is killed and 78 are injured.
November 11: Suicide bombing of army headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka kills 15. Attack carried out by Sri Lankan Tamil terrorists belonging to the LTTE.
November 13: Bombing of OPM-SANG building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kills seven
November 19: Bombing of Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan kills 19.
December 11: ETA Basque militant group bombs a military truck in Madrid, killing six civilians.
[edit] 1996
January: In Kizlyar, 350 Chechen militants took 3,000 hostages in a hospital. The attempt to free them kills 65 civilians and soldiers.
January: Provisional Irish Republican Army plants a bomb that police defuse at the Canary Wharf towers in London.
January 9: The separatist Free Papua Movement kidnapped several Western and Indonesian scientists. In May, after weeks of failed negotiations, the Indonesian Army launched a rescue operation in which two hostages and six guerillas were killed.[89]
January 31: LTTE carries out Central Bank Bombing in Sri Lanka kills 90 and wounds 1,400.
February 9: IRA plants a bomb near the South Quay station, killing two people and causing over $1 billion worth of damage. (see 1996 Docklands bombing)
February 25 – March 4: A series of four suicide bombings in Israel leave 60 dead and 284 wounded within ten days.
April 18: 18 people are killed when Islamist gunmen fire on the Europa hotel in Cairo.[90]
June 11: A bomb explodes on a train traveling on the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line of the Moscow Metro, killing four people and seriously injuring at least twelve.[91]
June 15: A bomb containing 1500 kg of explosives was detonated by the IRA in Manchester city centre. Due to a warning being given the area was evacuated and nobody was killed. Following the large number of bombings in major English cities and the huge monetary damage inflicted on the British State, it was decided to reopen peace negotiations with the IRA. A year later the Good Friday Agreement was signed securing a ceasefire which is still in place. (see Manchester bombing by IRA).
June 25: Khobar Towers bombing — In all, 19 U.S. servicemen and one Saudi were killed and 372 wounded, by Hizballah Al-Hijaz (Saudi Hizballah) with Iranian support, see FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
July 24: LTTE plants bomb on commuter train in Sri Lanka kills 57.
July 27: Centennial Olympic Park bombing, killing one and wounding 111.
August: Marina Roscha Synagogue in Moscow is bombed shortly after being rebuilt after a fire in 1993.
October 17:The Algerian Armed Islamic Group bombs an underground train injuring 28 people. [92]
December 17: Japanese embassy hostage crisis begins in Lima, Peru; it ends April 22, 1997 with the deaths of 14 rebels, two soldiers and a hostage.
[edit] 1997
February 24: Ali Abu Kamal opens fire on tourists at an observation deck atop the Empire State Building in New York City, United States, killing a Danish national and wounding visitors from the United States, Argentina, Switzerland and France before turning the gun on himself. A handwritten note carried by the gunman claims this was a punishment attack against the “enemies of Palestine”. His widow claimed he became suicidal after losing $300,000 in a business venture. In a 2007 interview with the New York Daily News his daughter said her mothers story was a cover crafted by the Palestinian Authority and that her father wanted to punish the United States for its support of Israel.[93]
February 27: A car bomb kills seven and injures 49 in the town of Apartadó, Chocó. No groups claim responsibility.[94]
June 28: A bomb explodes on a train traveling from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, Russia, killing three and injuring seven.[95]
February 25: Three bus bombs in Urumqi destroy the No. 2, 10, and 44 buses, killing nine people.
June 17: Eight elite police officers die after a truck bomb explodes in Bogotá. Authorities say FARC is responsible for the attack.[96]
October 4 LTTE attack in Columbo on Hilton Hotel and Parliament kills 17, 100 wounded. Running gun battle on streets with govt forces.
November 17: Luxor Massacre – Islamist gunmen attack tourists in Luxor, Egypt, killing 62 and injuring 24 people, most of them European and Japanese holidaymakers.
December 22: Acteal massacre – 46 killed while praying in Acteal, Chiapas, Mexico. A paramilitary group associated with ex-president Salinas is held responsible.
Luis Posada Carriles organized a string of bombings at luxury hotels in Cuba in 1997 in order to discourage the growth of the tourism industry. One Italian tourist died.
[edit] 1998
January: Wandhama Massacre – 24 Kashmiri Pandits are massacred by Kashmiri militants in the city of Wandhama in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
January 11: Sidi-Hamed massacre Between 120 and 400 people are killed when the Armed Islamic Group bombs a mosque in Haouche Sahraoui and opens fire on civilians in a cinema in Sidi Ahmen. [97]
February 14: 1998 Coimbatore bombings – Bombings by suspected Islamic Jihadi groups on an election rally in Indian city of Coimbatore kill about 60 people.
January 25: LTTE bombs the sacred Buddhist shrine Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy, Sri Lanka killing 17.
January 29: The anti-abortion Army of God bombs a health clinic in Birmingham, Alabama killing a police officer and injuring a worker
Naaaaah, its O.K. folks, dont you all worry about those pesky little terrorists.
The earth is a comin ta git cha !
[…] Mr. Gore got his Nobel prize and used the opportunity to slam the rest of the world (especially the US) on global warming. He claims that the next US President will shift the course on climate change (don’t bet on it, Al), told the US and China to make bold moves on climate change or “stand accountable before history for their failure to act,” praised the new Aussie liberal for caving in to Kyoto, likened global warming to war and told us that “we are what is wrong.” And what did Alec Baldwin have to say about this? “Al Gore today takes his place as a true global leader.” Gag me. But the weirdness doesn’t stop there, because Gore also donated casts of his feet to decorate the “peace pathway” in Norway. I would have recommended a cast of his ego instead. From the blogs: Say Anything, Doug Ross, OpenMarket and here, Jessica McBride, Tygrrrr Express […]
Micky – how the heck did you manage to be in all those places!
Look, I don’t want to risk the thousands of Americans lives, thousands of innocent bystanders, and trillions of dollars on fighting Global Warming either, Micky. I’m just saying that when you look at the big picture, the future, I’m more worried about what mass worldwide industrialization may do to the inhabitability of planet – on many levels – then I am about a few terrorist subcultures.
Baily,
“Gee JMJ, sounds to me like you wouldn’t mind being at the epicenter of the first city that is obliterated here in the US by TERRORISTS not smog.”
I lived and worked all around the NYC metro area most of my life. I was not all that surprised by 9/11, but yes, it did scare the hell out of me. So did the endless fear of car accidents, violent crime, crooked dealers, drugs, disease – oh, and pollution. That’s just life. When you compare probabilities, terorism is not very likely to be what gets you in the end. ;)
“Compared to the 50s and 60s our air pollution is minimal.”
No. Compared to the 50’s and 60’s it is a little more environmentally efficient. You san’t say “minimal.” Just the same, throw in India, China, Indonesia, Brazil, etc, and the pollution may make the second half of the 19th century look “minimal.”
“And, you are dead wrong. China and India are pumping every bit as much as the US into the atmosphere, only the US is doing something about it and they are NOT.”
They are, we’re not, and I’m not wrong. I hadn’t brought it up until now. The developing world is trying to get as much nuclear and hydro power as they can. They probably could and want to do more. But the double-digit growth they’ve been handling – thanks in large part to “free trade” American/European consumption and profiteering – requires huge energy expenditures. If you think the 19th and 20th century were not enough, try industrialization with twenty-times the population! We CAN do something about all of that. They can’t.
“You expose yourself as a Bush hater.”
I don’t hate Bush. I don’t hate his father. I disagree with them a lot, but I don’t hate them. In a way, I actually feel sorry for them.
JMJ
Jerseys motto
If you live in the past , you must live in guilt.
If you live in the future , you must live in fear.
Of course, it doesnt hurt to be guilty of the future also, so lets drum up some gerbil warming.
Jersey, you are just bringing up old and disproven arguements.
Eric provided the link to the greeniac debate for anyone who would like to see all of Jerseys arguements squashed. It was a marathon debate and ALOT of work.
Unlike myself , When Jersey cant prove something he expects you to take his word for it and says ; ( in this instance he could not prove his claim that Bush lied, about anything)
December 12, 2007 at 1:25 pm
” Its so well known, so pervasive, so ubiquitous, that I am not going to bother to make the effort to prove anything to you.’
So much for honest debate.
And its more than likely that he cant find anything to back up the above post.
He’ll expect you all to take his word for it. And he’ll guarantee his word.
The greeniac debate .
Make a pot of coffee and watch the left get slaughterd
http://blacktygrrrr.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/are-the-greeniacs-wrong/#comments
Baily said;
“Compared to the 50s and 60s our air pollution is minimal.”
JMJ said in response to Baily
“No. Compared to the 50’s and 60’s it is a little more environmentally efficient. You san’t say “minimal.” Just the same, throw in India, China, Indonesia, Brazil, etc, and the pollution may make the second half of the 19th century look “minimal.”
“And, you are dead wrong. China and India are pumping every bit as much as the US into the atmosphere, only the US is doing something about it and they are NOT.”
I say;
“Most of us believe that increased energy use inevitably harms the environment. More than 83 percent of respondents replied that they believe that our cities are becoming more polluted as a result of our increased energy use. And why shouldn’t they believe this? More energy use means increased economic growth and greater industrial production. Add to that a 38 percent increase in U.S. population, and it also means more coal and gasoline burned and more miles driven or flown. Indeed, from 1970 to 2002, Americans’ total energy consumption rose by more than 40 percent, including 543 million extra tons of coal per year and an additional 5.4 million barrels per day of oil for our cars, trucks, and planes.
But here is a fact that most people don’t know: pollution has been cut nearly in half over this period, despite rising energy consumption and an expanding economy. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2003 Air Quality and Emissions Trends Report, which looked at the period from 1970 to 2002, “Aggregate emissions of the six principal pollutants have been cut 48 percent. During that same time, U.S. gross domestic product increased 164 percent … and vehicle miles traveled increased 155 percent.”
Journalist Gregg Easterbrook took note of these trends in The Progress Paradox: “Since 1970, smog has declined by a third, even as the number of cars has nearly doubled and vehicle-miles traveled have increased by 143 percent; acid rain has declined by 67 percent, even though the United States now burns almost twice as much coal annually to produce electric power; airborne soot particles are down, which is why most cities have blue skies again; airborne lead, a poison, is down 97 percent.”[11]
How to explain this seeming paradox—more energy use by more people, but less overall pollution? Part of the answer may lie with the pollution controls codified in the Clean Air Act of 1970. Some observers, though, argue that air quality in the United States had been improving substantially even before the passage of that landmark legislation and that a combination of advanced technologies and state and local laws would have guaranteed continued improvement in air quality even without the federal government’s regulatory involvement. Whatever the reason, there is little doubt that by most measures (clean air being just one), America’s environment is cleaner today than it was several decades ago.
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the – Web Reconnaissance for 12/13/2007 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.