What is wrong with making apocalyptic predictions to scare people into taking action? Well, if they don't come true it damages credibility. From 30 June 1989:
A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000. Coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of "eco-refugees," threatening political chaos, said Noel Brown, director of the New York office of the United Nations U.N. Environment Program, or UNEP. He said governments have a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the problem.From 10 August 2009:
Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary-General, has warned of "catastrophic consequences" unless a new international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions is reached. . . "The world has less than 10 years to halt the global rise in greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences for people and the planet."
Thanks to BP.