Back in the mid-1970s, global cooling was the rallying cry of the alarmists and crisis seekers-- a new ice age was upon us threatening to destroy the human race. My, how times have changed, but the rhetoric has stayed the same----
"As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval. However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age."
~ Time Magazine, Another Ice Age, June 24, 1974
I was just reading on how tropical forests may benefit from increased CO2, unlike what computer models have predicted.
ReplyDeleteI believe that humans do affect global warming. I also believe that humans are pretty ignorant of the effects of climate change, and that we don't necessarily know if it's going to be good or bad. I also know that CO2 levels have been much higher for most of Earth's history, and that the Earth was warmer during the middle ages. I am much more afraid of those that would dump iron in the oceans or launch other hare-brained schemes that probably have much more of a chance to cause a mass-extinction event than the mere pumping of CO2 does.
The Earth *was* warmer during the Middle Ages, and then got colder. The Greenland Vikings found out the hard way.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, I now have a vague memory of being a kid in the 70s and having a fear of an ice age! So funny!
ReplyDeleteI don't know what in the world to believe. I hate that we dump chemicals in our waterways and that factories dump huge amounts of gunk into the sky. However, to me there is a certain amount of pollution that I think we just have to accept. I wish other countries were better regulated and such though.
Al Gore drives me crazy though...