Does anyone remember global cooling 30 years ago?

Question

I saw it mentioned as an answer. I don't remember the global cooling scare, does anyone have more specifics.

Answer 1

Yes, in the 70's the media was predicting extinction of all man kind by global cooling. Sort of what they say today, but for global warming. It was BS then, and BS today.

Answer 2

Since climate patters are cyclical, about 30 years ago, many climatologists believed that a new ice age may hit the planet. This conclusion was drawn from a study of global climate patterns as presented by fossils, etc. Real climate changes take time, and in 30 years it is simply not possible to disprove that a new ice age may not eventually come. For the same reason, those people who claim global warming may be catastrophic in a short time have to be considered skeptically. For example, Al Gore is NOT by any means an  "expert" in any environmental matters, but many people treat him as one.

Answer 3

I remember it.  Back in 1971, I was in 8th grade and we were studying the environment.  We were told about how global temperatures had been dropping since 1945.  Scientists were afraid if the trend continued we would be heading into a new Ice Age.  Also, it rained a lot more then.  I can remember a picture of a man surfing down one of the main boulevards in town.  No dam had busted, it was just snow melt combined with rain water.  We haven't seen anything like it.  

Of course, mankind was blamed for the cooling as well.  Air pollution, particulates, were said to cool the atmosphere and cause greater precipitation.  At the time, it was only a few scientists sounding the alarm. A couple of them were from NASA, just as James Hansen is now.  Only NASA was a much higher profile agency then.  Mankind had first walked on the moon only two years before.  

Global cooling did not dominate the media nearly as much as global warming is now.  But Time magazine did a story on global cooling.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816...

You might be interested in these:

http://www.businessandmedia.org/specialr...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cool...

http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sh...

Answer 4

Newsweek ran a cover story about global cooling in the 70's.

Answer 5

Well, the only scientific reference point I can think of is when they first started to pull up pristine ice-core samples.

If you project the ice-core samples pre-human climate cycle forward from say about 10000 years ago, we SHOULD be on the down-slope (in the way of temperature) heading towards another ice-age in about 1000-2000 years from now.

However, when you factor in the most recent ice-cores and the actual temperature records over the last 150 years or so, its pretty clear that temperatures are headed the other way.

Scientific American (not too long ago) did an article observing that it's entirely possible that we have effectively interrupted the normal climate cycle and possibly prevented the next ice-age at this point.

http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserve...

Answer 6

I was in 8th grade 30 years ago and we were studying the "greenhouse effect" as it was known then.  Nothing about global cooling

Answer 7

"On July 9, 1971, the Post published a story headlined "U.S. Scientist Sees New Ice Age Coming." It told of a prediction by NASA and Columbia University scientist S.I. Rasool. The culprit: man's use of fossil fuels.

The Post reported that Rasool, writing in Science, argued that in "the next 50 years" fine dust that humans discharge into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuel will screen out so much of the sun's rays that the Earth's average temperature could fall by six degrees.

Sustained emissions over five to 10 years, Rasool claimed, "could be sufficient to trigger an ice age."

Aiding Rasool's research, the Post reported, was a "computer program developed by Dr. James Hansen," who was, according to his resume, a Columbia University research associate at the time."

http://www.investors.com/editorial/edito...

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The same people that now say that ghg's add to global warming were once claiming that the Earth was doomed to cool.  Makes you wonder what we're in for 30 years from now.

Answer 8

Nope.  Sounds like BS to me.

Answer 9

Just a few guys with no good data who got way more attention from the media than they deserved (which explains most of the answers above).  With no backing from ANY major scientific organization.

They very much resembled the "skeptics" of today.

What they were not like in any way is today's thousands of climatologists, with a mountain of verified and replicated data, and the backing of EVERY major scientific organization.

More details here:

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=9...

Answer 10

Yes, I remember it, too.

Now we get this foolishness about too much warming.

My favorite quote from Yahoo Answers on this subject:

Danger of being eaten alive by wolves in a McDonalds parking lot (slightly higher than global warming or running our of fuel)  Greg H

Answer 11

No. That's because it wasn't anything like global warming.

Answer 12

They had the same type scare reports in all the media about how the next ice age was coming.

what they did not have was the internet. so there was no way to question all the reports of the coming ice age.

now with the internet the far left radical global warmers can saturate the internet with all types of so called research that global warming is real.

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/artic...

they can also claim any research the is anti global warming is

ether bad research,

payed for by the oil companies.

not done by climatologist.

at the same time the anti global warming people try to show that much of the global warming scam research is.

done by researcher that are not climatologist

(they claim that only climatologist are the only one that can predict global warming, then put out reams of research from non-climatologist to show that global warming is real. talk about a double standard)

there scientists are payed for by tree hugger foundations.

like the (pew charitable trust or the "Hinze family foundation"

both are envirolmentalist  global warming research funding groups.

http://www.pewtrust.org/

http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et0803/et080...

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/2...

Answer 13

Yes,we were told at school that we could grow up in an ice age where nothing would survive.It was front pg news for awhile cited to happen in 30 years or so.I am still waiting for that ice age 45 years later lol.

Answer 14

So let me get this straight,1 scientist claimed back in 1971 that there was going to be "global cooling" ,and you 'believe' him.  Now there are thousands of reputable scientists and scientific organizations around the world agreeing that AGW is not only a theory,it's already happening. There weren't even any weather satellites back then. Science has come a long way in 30 years!

Answer 15

yes, it was in the early 70's.  the sick part is, that quite a few of the crazy global warming pseudo scientists were involved in the new ice age scare back then.  they have no credibility with anyone who is educated, but then most of the members of the media are uneducated imbecils

pat and legend may be included in the uneducated crowd.  it isn't very difficult to find the time and newsweek covers from the 70's trying to scare us about the new ice age

Answer 16

Yes, but it was about forty years ago. I clearly remember being taught in second grade that the world was entering a new ice age.

Answer 17

I do.

I heard it about 20 years ago when I was in elementary school.

I won 3rd place in a regional art contest. We had to make up bookmarks showing how using fossil fuels was causing global cooling.

We were told in our science class that glaciers would have overtaken Canada and parts of the northern U.S. by the time we were adults and had kids.  

Now, instead of freezng, we're supposed to burn up.

Answer 18

In the 1970s, a number of popular magazines (Time, Newsweek, etc.) ran some articles on the emerging science of climatology.  Scientists in the field pointed out that the Earth had gone through warming and cooloing periods in the past, and probably would do so again at some point.

In addition, at the time emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) were a pollution problem (causing acid rain).  Further, SO2 has the opposite effect of CO2--it blocks sunlight and could have conceivably caused global cooling--though that was simply a hypothesis, not a proven fact. In any event, the problem was solved by environmental legislation that required that SO2 be removed from coal powerplant emissions.

Now--the magazines I spoke of were NOT scientific journals--and the writers chose to focus on the most attention grabbing speculation--that there might be another ice age at some point in the future.  But scientists never claimed there would be-or that the world was cooling. THAT is simply a fabrication dreamed up by the so-called "skeptics of global warming."

Hope that helps.

Answer 19

Yes, My high school science teacher.

And man! there was so much credible data and and it was a sure thing.

Answer 20

People jump from one doomsday to the next. We should be good stewards of our planet, but not out of fear of global warming. Despite what the media says, it is still inconclusive to say that we are causing "global warming". It may take over 100 years to really see if it is cyclic or we are causing it.