{"id":379151,"date":"2025-05-21T10:49:45","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T08:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=379151"},"modified":"2025-05-21T10:49:46","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T08:49:46","slug":"from-manure-mountains-to-train-terrors-4-bizarre-fears-humans-left-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=379151","title":{"rendered":"From Manure Mountains to Train Terrors: 4 Bizarre Fears Humans Left Behind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Ross Pomeroy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human beings are a panicky species \u2013 quick to fear and slow to understand. Over much of our evolutionary history, this ingrained alarm served us well, keeping us alive in a wild world brimming with dangers. But as humans came to dominate the globe and render the Earth more and more harmless (at least to us, mostly<\/a>), we started to fret about increasingly innocuous things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In his 2024 book, Fear\/Less: Why Your Lifelong Fears Are Probably Groundless<\/a>, Professor Wojciech Janicki, who\u2019s based at the University of Maria Curie-Sklodowska in Poland, recounted some of the things humans once feared that probably seem silly to us today. His ultimate point? \u201cEven though humans have solved problem after problem, averting the obliteration of the species, it is still widely believed that catastrophe is almost inevitable.\u201d It\u2019s time to consciously allay our fears and deal with threats as challenges rather than reasons for dejection and doomism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are four formerly widespread fears, many of which were dispelled through innovation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Train Travel.<\/strong> As railway travel proliferated in the 19th century, worries spread in media, scientific literature, and popular culture that this futuristic form of transportation could wreak havoc<\/a> on passengers\u2019 physical and mental health. It was claimed that jarring movements and loud noises at unnaturally-fast speeds of sixty miles per hour resulted in<\/a> chronic inflammation, impaired vision, and a nauseating host of other physical ailments. Worse, some people could suffer from \u201crailway neurosis\u201d, driving them temporarily or permanently insane<\/a>. Habituation to train travel, along with improvements to tracks and locomotives, gradually assuaged travelers\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Electric Wires.<\/strong> Today, electric wires fade into the background of modern life in much of the world, but in the late 1800s, residents of New York City looked up at them with trepidation<\/a>. Though fewer than 10 percent of households were connected to the grid at the time, the metropolis was one of the first to see rising adoption. In 1889, when Western Union lineman John Feek was electrocuted on the job, the public\u2019s unease turned into mass panic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an article recounting the saga in IEEE Xplore<\/a>, J.P. Sullivan explained Americans\u2019 thinking more than a century ago. \u201cThey believed that new technology would improve society, but at the same time worried that they had no control over the pace and direction of this change\u2026 The tension between technological enthusiasm and pessimism created a profound anxiety about electricity and the new urban world it was creating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know what happened. Electrical safety improved, and the benefits of electricity grew too large to relinquish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. \u2018Drowning\u2019 in Horse Manure.<\/strong> In the 1890s, residents, officials, and planners living in London and New York worried<\/a> that their streets would eventually become impassible and their cities unlivable from a build-up of horse manure. The hundreds of thousands of horses traversing city blocks to move freight and passengers left behind millions of pounds of fresh feces and urine each day. City cleaners would pile and move the gathered loads to designated locations, but sludgy excrement still caked the streets. As the cities\u2019 populations rose, so, too would the mountains of dung!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worries quickly evaporated when motorcars and electric streetcars arrived on the scene. \u201cA kind of paradox, don\u2019t you think? A car with a combustion engine was a solution, not a problem!\u201d Janicki commented<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Global Population Crash.<\/strong> From Paul Ehrlich in the 1968, to Thomas Malthus 170 years prior, to Confucius in the 6th Century BC, esteemed thinkers have fretted over human population growth. Many portended imminent and catastrophic crashes, often through widespread famine. Thus far, on a global scale, they\u2019ve always been wrong. There are roughly 8.1 billion humans living on Earth today, and global poverty continues to fall<\/a>, albeit not as fast as it could. Eating too many calories is a more common problem than eating too few. Human population growth will likely halt later this century, but not because of mass death \u2013 rather, due to higher living standards and voluntary contraception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was originally published by RealClearScience and made available via RealClearWire.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Human beings are a panicky species \u2013 quick to fear and slow to understand. Over much of our evolutionary history, this ingrained alarm served us well, keeping us alive in a wild world brimming with dangers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":379155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691835222,691835220,691835221,691835223,691822091,691818798,691835219],"class_list":{"0":"post-379151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-drowning-in-horse-manure","9":"tag-railway-neurosis","10":"tag-electric-wires","11":"tag-global-population-crash","12":"tag-mass-panic","13":"tag-paul-ehrlich","14":"tag-professor-wojciech-janicki","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/01518971.jpg?fit=2949%2C1421&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1ADl","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":421968,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=421968","url_meta":{"origin":379151,"position":0},"title":"Human Evolution: \u2018Our Ultimate Fate Comes Down to\u2026 Three Possibilities\u2019","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"18\/01\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the past couple millennia, a mere blip of Earth\u2019s history, humans have manifestly reshaped the planet \u2013 from the physical to the biological. The ground, the oceans, the air, the flora, the fauna \u2013 nothing is as it was. And yet, despite this radical transformation, it can seem like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0AQPoe3hCTVXCQNf67vCE7dWdIANGBvACmHkJGjOpyIPI_TdLIF3RTVp0CaNjueuC5K7vkaquAZRmTJrpN0s0cHmpmXzoQs0cjTg-sWmrpge-Y9LS8lKTwQJ3AghnAW_N-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C614&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0AQPoe3hCTVXCQNf67vCE7dWdIANGBvACmHkJGjOpyIPI_TdLIF3RTVp0CaNjueuC5K7vkaquAZRmTJrpN0s0cHmpmXzoQs0cjTg-sWmrpge-Y9LS8lKTwQJ3AghnAW_N-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C614&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0AQPoe3hCTVXCQNf67vCE7dWdIANGBvACmHkJGjOpyIPI_TdLIF3RTVp0CaNjueuC5K7vkaquAZRmTJrpN0s0cHmpmXzoQs0cjTg-sWmrpge-Y9LS8lKTwQJ3AghnAW_N-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C614&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0AQPoe3hCTVXCQNf67vCE7dWdIANGBvACmHkJGjOpyIPI_TdLIF3RTVp0CaNjueuC5K7vkaquAZRmTJrpN0s0cHmpmXzoQs0cjTg-sWmrpge-Y9LS8lKTwQJ3AghnAW_N-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C614&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0AQPoe3hCTVXCQNf67vCE7dWdIANGBvACmHkJGjOpyIPI_TdLIF3RTVp0CaNjueuC5K7vkaquAZRmTJrpN0s0cHmpmXzoQs0cjTg-sWmrpge-Y9LS8lKTwQJ3AghnAW_N-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C614&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":439350,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=439350","url_meta":{"origin":379151,"position":1},"title":"Wrong Again, Associated Press, Climate Change Isn\u2019t Overrunning Evolution","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"13\/04\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The AP's framing is rhetorically catchy but scientifically shallow: it ignores well-documented rapid biological responses, conflates climate stress with direct human impacts (logging, development, poor land management), and treats modest ~1\u00b0C warming over 150 years as unprecedented when ecosystems have handled far larger swings through plasticity, migration, hybridization, and selection.","rel":"","context":"In \"Associated Press (AP)\"","block_context":{"text":"Associated Press (AP)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=associated-press-ap"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Wrong-Again-Associated-Press-Climate-Change-Isnt-Overrunning-Evolution.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Wrong-Again-Associated-Press-Climate-Change-Isnt-Overrunning-Evolution.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Wrong-Again-Associated-Press-Climate-Change-Isnt-Overrunning-Evolution.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Wrong-Again-Associated-Press-Climate-Change-Isnt-Overrunning-Evolution.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Wrong-Again-Associated-Press-Climate-Change-Isnt-Overrunning-Evolution.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":264124,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=264124","url_meta":{"origin":379151,"position":2},"title":"No evidence polar bears survived Eemian warmth because they were not yet fully ice-dependent","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"27\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Is evolution primarily fast or slow? Does it take hundreds of thousands of years or a few\u00a0generations\u00a0to produce a new species? Ignoring\u00a0vast evidence\u00a0to the contrary, most geneticists insist that evolutionary change is imperceptibly slow and\u00a0one of them\u00a0is using this misconception to support the human-caused climate change narrative.","rel":"","context":"In \"Arctic sea ice\"","block_context":{"text":"Arctic sea ice","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=arctic-sea-ice"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0227472polarbearscute550x412-1200x800-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0227472polarbearscute550x412-1200x800-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0227472polarbearscute550x412-1200x800-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0227472polarbearscute550x412-1200x800-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0227472polarbearscute550x412-1200x800-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":278239,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=278239","url_meta":{"origin":379151,"position":3},"title":"WHO Sounds Alarm Over \u201cConcerning\u201d Covid Wave Coming This Winter With \u201cIncreasing Deaths\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/09\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The fear is being ramped up again as the World Health Organisation (WHO) warns of \u201cconcerning trends\u201d for COVID-19 ahead of winter with \u201cincreasing deaths\u201d as the new BA.2.86 \u2018pirola\u2019 variant spreads across the Northern Hemisphere. Oh no, there\u2019s a cold-like virus spreading in the winter. Quick, suspend human life\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Covid deaths\"","block_context":{"text":"Covid deaths","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=covid-deaths"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-325.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-325.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-325.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-325.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-325.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":261713,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=261713","url_meta":{"origin":379151,"position":4},"title":"How grizzlies evolved into polar bears: The first book to tell the whole story is now available","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Polar Bear Evolution: A Model for How New Species Arise\u00a0is the fascinating story of the origin of polar bears. It reveals not just\u00a0when and where\u00a0the species came to be, but\u00a0how\u00a0it happened and\u00a0why\u00a0the bears were able to survive repeated cycles of sea ice change, some of unimaginable severity.","rel":"","context":"In \"Grizzlies\"","block_context":{"text":"Grizzlies","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=grizzlies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00polar-bears.jpeg?fit=1200%2C762&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00polar-bears.jpeg?fit=1200%2C762&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00polar-bears.jpeg?fit=1200%2C762&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00polar-bears.jpeg?fit=1200%2C762&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00polar-bears.jpeg?fit=1200%2C762&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":248508,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=248508","url_meta":{"origin":379151,"position":5},"title":"Best Extinction Prevention Plan?\u00a0 Quit Killing Them","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"19\/03\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The environmental protection world, and the world in general, has been going nuts over the issue of species extinction.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-716.png?fit=1200%2C601&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-716.png?fit=1200%2C601&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-716.png?fit=1200%2C601&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-716.png?fit=1200%2C601&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-716.png?fit=1200%2C601&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=379151"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379157,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379151\/revisions\/379157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/379155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=379151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=379151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=379151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}