A compilation of news articles on the global cooling scare of the 1970’s
Does the bullet point list for solutions to global cooling at right look familiar? It reads almost like some of the manifestos we get from warmists today, including the suspension of Democracy as the article in the Owosso Newspaper clearly demonstrates. Thanks to Poptech for the compilation.
During the 1970s the media promoted global cooling alarmism with dire threats of a new ice age. Extreme weather events were hyped as signs of the coming apocalypse and man-made pollution was blamed as the cause.
Environmental extremists called for everything from outlawing the internal combustion engine to communist style population controls. This media hype was found in newspapers, magazines, books and on television;
News articles*:
1970 – Colder Winters Held Dawn of New Ice Age – Scientists See Ice Age In the Future (The Washington Post, January 11, 1970)
1970 – Is Mankind Manufacturing a New Ice Age for Itself? (L.A. Times, January 15, 1970)
1970 – New Ice Age May Descend On Man (Sumter Daily Item, January 26, 1970)
1970 – Pollution Prospect A Chilling One (Owosso Argus-Press, January 26, 1970)
1970 – Pollution’s 2-way ‘Freeze’ On Society (Middlesboro Daily News, January 28, 1970)
1970 – Cold Facts About Pollution (The Southeast Missourian, January 29, 1970)
1970 – Pollution Could Cause Ice Age, Agency Reports (St. Petersburg Times, March 4, 1970)
1970 – Pollution Called Ice Age Threat (St. Petersburg Times, June 26, 1970)
1970 – Dirt Will .Bring New Ice Age (The Sydney Morning Herald, October 19, 1970)
1971 – Ice Age Refugee Dies Underground (The Montreal Gazette, Febuary 17, 1971)
1971 – U.S. Scientist Sees New Ice Age Coming (The Washington Post, July 9, 1971)
1971 – Ice Age Around the Corner (Chicago Tribune, July 10, 1971)
1971 – New Ice Age Coming – It’s Already Getting Colder (L.A. Times, October 24, 1971)
1971 – Another Ice Age? Pollution Blocking Sunlight (The Day, November 1, 1971)
1971 – Air Pollution Could Bring An Ice Age (Harlan Daily Enterprise, November 4, 1971)
1972 – Air pollution may cause ice age (Free-Lance Star, February 3, 1972)
1972 – Scientist Says New ice Age Coming (The Ledger, February 13, 1972)
1972 – Scientist predicts new ice age (Free-Lance Star, September 11, 1972)
1972 – British expert on Climate Change says Says New Ice Age Creeping Over Northern Hemisphere (Lewiston Evening Journal, September 11, 1972)
1972 – Climate Seen Cooling For Return Of Ice Age (Portsmouth Times, September 11, 1972)
1972 – New Ice Age Slipping Over North (Press-Courier, September 11, 1972)
1972 – Ice Age Begins A New Assault In North (The Age, September 12, 1972)
1972 – Weather To Get Colder (Montreal Gazette, September 12, 1972)
1972 – British climate expert predicts new Ice Age (The Christian Science Monitor, September 23, 1972)
1972 – Scientist Sees Chilling Signs of New Ice Age (L.A. Times, September 24, 1972)
1972 – Science: Another Ice Age? (Time Magazine, November 13, 1972)
1973 – The Ice Age Cometh (The Saturday Review, March 24, 1973)
1973 – Weather-watchers think another ice age may be on the way (The Christian Science Monitor, December 11, 1973)
1974 – New evidence indicates ice age here (Eugene Register-Guard, May 29, 1974)
1974 – Another Ice Age? (Time Magazine, June 24, 1974)
1974 – 2 Scientists Think ‘Little’ Ice Age Near (The Hartford Courant, August 11, 1974)
1974 – Ice Age, worse food crisis seen (The Chicago Tribune, October 30, 1974)
1974 – Believes Pollution Could Bring On Ice Age (Ludington Daily News, December 4, 1974)
1974 – Pollution Could Spur Ice Age, Nasa Says (Beaver Country Times, December 4, 1974)
1974 – Air Pollution May Trigger Ice Age, Scientists Feel (The Telegraph, December 5, 1974)
1974 – More Air Pollution Could Trigger Ice Age Disaster (Daily Sentinel – December 5, 1974)
1974 – Scientists Fear Smog Could Cause Ice Age (Milwaukee Journal, December 5, 1974)
1975 – Climate Changes Called Ominous (The New York Times, January 19, 1975)
1975 – Climate Change: Chilling Possibilities (Science News, March 1, 1975)
1975 – B-r-r-r-r: New Ice Age on way soon? (The Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1975)
1975 – Cooling Trends Arouse Fear That New Ice Age Coming (Eugene Register-Guard, March 2, 1975)
1975 – Is Another Ice Age Due? Arctic Ice Expands In Last Decade (Youngstown Vindicator – March 2, 1975)
1975 – Is Earth Headed For Another Ice Age? (Reading Eagle, March 2, 1975)
1975 – New Ice Age Dawning? Significant Shift In Climate Seen (Times Daily, March 2, 1975)
1975 – There’s Troublesome Weather Ahead (Tri City Herald, March 2, 1975)
1975 – Is Earth Doomed To Live Through Another Ice Age? (The Robesonian, March 3, 1975)
1975 – The Ice Age cometh: the system that controls our climate (The Chicago Tribune, April 13, 1975)
1975 – The Cooling World (Newsweek, April 28, 1975)
1975 – Scientists Ask Why World Climate Is Changing; Major Cooling May Be Ahead (PDF) (The New York Times, May 21, 1975)
1975 – In the Grip of a New Ice Age? (International Wildlife, July-August, 1975)
1975 – Oil Spill Could Cause New Ice Age (Milwaukee Journal, December 11, 1975)
1976 – The Cooling: Has the Next Ice Age Already Begun? [Book] (Lowell Ponte, 1976)
1977 – Blizzard – What Happens if it Doesn’t Stop? [Book] (George Stone, 1977)
1977 – The Weather Conspiracy: The Coming of the New Ice Age [Book] (The Impact Team, 1977)
1976 – Worrisome CIA Report; Even U.S. Farms May be Hit by Cooling Trend (U.S. News & World Report, May 31, 1976)
1977 – The Big Freeze (Time Magazine, January 31, 1977)
1977 – We Will Freeze in the Dark (Capital Cities Communications Documentary, Host: Nancy Dickerson, April 12, 1977)
1978 – The New Ice Age [Book] (Henry Gilfond, 1978)
1978 – Little Ice Age: Severe winters and cool summers ahead (Calgary Herald, January 10, 1978)
1978 – Winters Will Get Colder, ‘we’re Entering Little Ice Age’ (Ellensburg Daily Record, January 10, 1978)
1978 – Geologist Says Winters Getting Colder (Middlesboro Daily News, January 16, 1978)
1978 – It’s Going To Get Colder (Boca Raton News, January 17, 1978)
1978 – Believe new ice age is coming (The Bryan Times, March 31, 1978)
1978 – The Coming Ice Age (In Search Of TV Show, Season 2, Episode 23, Host: Leonard Nimoy, May 1978)
1978 – An Ice Age Is Coming Weather Expert Fears (Milwaukee Sentinel, November 17, 1978)
1979 – A Choice of Catastrophes – The Disasters That Threaten Our World [Book] (Isaac Asimov, 1979)
1979 – Get Ready to Freeze (Spokane Daily Chronicle, October 12, 1979)
1979 – New ice age almost upon us? (The Christian Science Monitor, November 14, 1979)
And from the National Center for Atmospheric Research:
Source: http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Magazines/Bulletin/Bull165/16505796265.pdf
While a silent majority of the scientific community may have been more skeptical, you ironically find one of the most outspoken supporters of modern day Al Gore style global warming alarmism was promoting global cooling in the 1970s, the late Dr. Steven Schneider;
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.“ – Life of Reason, George Santayana
Related articles
- CIA 1974 National Security Threat: Global Cooling/Excess Arctic Ice Causing Extreme Weather (climatedepot.com)
- 1974 Shock News: Global Cooling To Kill One Billion People (junkscience.com)
- NCAR 1974 : Global Cooling And Extreme Weather Is The New Normal (stevengoddard.wordpress.com)
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Sadly, the Time article from 1974 is now paywalled.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944914,00.html
It does still appear to be on archive.org, here (had to go back to 2011 to get it):
http://web.archive.org/web/20110101083132/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944914,00.html
page 2 here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110108155030/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944914-2,00.html
I remember it being longer than two pages, but perhaps not. Anyway, I’m going to save it this time, before it gets removed …
Do you honestly think the people who are pushing agenda do not know there is a roughly 30 yr cycle?.. The downfall of that is that about the time everyone starts to believe… it changes:) Unfortunately we have let pseudo science agenda get away with stupid things like ozone hole scares and acid rain.. now they are on a rampage, time to take back our lives and freedoms from the greebly ones.
I agree with Jimbo at 10:30 that the climate scare stories are cyclic.
They are so cyclic, It looks like a 60 year cycle – 30 years cooling 30 years warming, they can be used as a predictor. Note also that in the past, there actually is a long lag time between when the temperatures start to turn and when the climate stories start to change. On that basis, I predict that a cycle of ice age scare stories is due – and wouldn’t you know it – the press is actually just starting to turn.
Schneider was such a master propagandist, and now he’s dead, and warmism is in shambles.
Honesty or Efficiency….
David, UK says:
March 1, 2013 at 10:57 am
“Yep. The Ice Age. The Russians. Acid Rain. Islam. Global Warming Climate Disruption. If it’s not one bogeyman it’s another. Governments; I despise them for the evil they are.”
BezorgdeBurger says:
March 1, 2013 at 1:20 pm
“David (UK), islam is a real problem no government scare. Maybe you try to fools us Here?”
I think David is right. While Islam is a real problem it’s mostly a problem for its followers. (just like Soviet collectivism was mostly a problem for its followers, only secondarily for the West (which created it in the first place, see Carol Quigley and/or Anthony Sutton))
A Crooks says:
March 1, 2013 at 2:46 pm
“On that basis, I predict that a cycle of ice age scare stories is due – and wouldn’t you know it – the press is actually just starting to turn.”
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if a top warmist “scientist” would switch to become an Ice Age scare prophet; much like Schneider switched in the 70ies – they had no problems blaming CO2 for the ice age threat, and later for the warming threat.
It is easy for climatists to postulate any kind of weird shit:
“n short, the theory is that during interglacial periods, over thousands of years, the earth’s soils get depleted of minerals, the plants become less robust and weaker at absorbing carbon dioxide and so carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere. It causes more water in the equatorial belt to evaporate and move to the poles where it accumulates as snow. This snow causes the ice caps to advance and a new 100,000 year glacial period begins.”
Stopping The Coming Ice Age by Larry Ephron & Andy Caffrey – ca. 1988 (!)
Can you also compile the warming stories from the 1920s and 30s please. To get a better picture of the overall warming-cooling news cycle.
climatereason says:
March 1, 2013 at 11:54 am
‘So the 20 year long (very real) cooling scare was most rife during the 1960′s and came to an end in the early 70′s. It is pointless of Connelley to cite selected later studies when the scare had ended, rather than the earlier studies when it was in full swing.”’
Not quite sure what you mean. The scare extended into ’78 or so and was embraced by first rate scientists at first rate universities.
Something you might want to research is the attempt to create a new scare based on several theories of Nuclear Winter following a nuclear war. It was extremely popular as Reagan’s popularity grew. It peaked and disappeared in the early Eighties.
Oh noes! Get ready for it’s what global warming looks like. Is there anything this trace gas can’t do?
philjourdan says:
March 1, 2013 at 1:05 pm
Very well said. The Left’s scare stories directed at children have been effective and just might be their greatest sin in the CAGW fiasco. I cannot forgive them.
andy,
This is probably what you’re looking for.
And this video from around 1980 is pretty well done. Spock narrates the ‘coming ice age’ scare. Very convincing. But then, we know what happened… nothing.
Theo
Concern was at its greatest in the climate science world in the early 1970’s as the 20 year cooling trend reached its lowest point. Temperatures then started to rise again and eventually concern switched to warming. This was pre internet days and science papers, research and especially books, would take some time to reflect the changing beliefs.There were few top climate scientists by the late 70’s who were still promoting cooling, other perhaps than those who didnt like to admit they were wrong. Im not sure who would fall into that category although to be fair a 20 year cooling trend followed byonly a five year warming trend -at the time- might still be considered as a threat
Yes, whatever happened to nuclear winters?
tonyb
In one of my earlier comments I quoted a letter to the President of the USA from a scientist named Kukla. I thought his name seemed familiar as I vaguely recall that he has stated in the 1970s that ice ages start with global warming!!!! And I was right. I think he has had too much rum, but here is what he has to say:
I vaguely recall that he was one of those who stated in the 1970s about an impending ice age. Too tired to check right now.
http://www.gelfmagazine.com/archives/an_unrepentant_prognosticator.php
Not only do I remember the proposed new ice age coming, I remember we lost spray-on antiperspirant over it. I really liked spray-on antiperspirant. I was pissed. I agree with the above commenter on the evil that governments do. I think like unions, their time is done
Dr. Singer embarrassed Carl Sagan on national TV in 1991 when Sagan flaunted nuclear winter theory as an outcome of the Kuwait Oil Fires, this obviously never happened and I’ve never heard it brought up seriously again.
Excellent. It is very important to show that the proposed “answers” are the same, no matter what the alarm is.
In the face of such duplicity, even the average Joe pauses to scratch his jaw and, even if he says nothing, he is doing a bit of private thinking.
You cannot fool all of the people all of the time.
The Alarmists have a limited number of tricks. Most of them follow a dogma, and fear original ideas. Because they can’t think up anything new, they just get repetitive. Eventually the simple concept of, “Fool me once; shame on you, but fool me twice; shame on me,” starts to kick in.
We have to keep hammering with the truth of what they said, the truth of what they’ve done, and the truth of how their predictions have been incorrect, and thus have been scientifically invalidated.
The danger is that Alarmists will be cornered rats, and do really foul and desperate deeds, rather than be humble and confess they were mistaken.
In China the “Great Leap Forward” was a total disaster, however it lead to the “Cultural Revolution,” where all those who were old and wise enough to point out the disaster were attacked.
Teachers who have blindly taught “Global Warming” as a fact, yet who are starting to become aware that, like the “Great Leap Forward,” it is a disaster, should be aware what happened to teachers in China during the “Cultural Revolution.”
It didn’t matter at all that teachers had supported the government and urged students to support the “Great Leap Forward.” They were deemed “the problem” and were beaten up by their students, (who formed the “Red Guard,”) and were purged to such a degree that, when China attempted to recover from the spasm of insanity called the “Cultural Revolution,” and reestablish it’s devastated schools in order to deal with the problem of growing illiteracy, no teachers remained to teach. China had to start over with a few of the better students, who had survived the madness, acting as full-fledged teachers.
We are living in dangerous times. Even if you are a coward and inclined to back away, you should be afraid of the cliff China backed over.
Be brave. Speak truth. Dare to be great.
As a 12-yr old,June 1st,1970 at 18:34 UTC,the sun was totally hidden from my back yard.The water in the puddle from the recent rain was frozen,solid.I remember stepping on it,and wondering what could have caused that.. The temp,as told me by my Dad,dropped 25 degrees F in 10 minutes.And the sun has no effect on our climate?And yes I did look up at the Sun,but our real scientific teaches back them made sure we had pinhole thingies to view with(sorry,can’t remember name)And the teaches where NOT at school,but with us in our back yards following, watching, explaing,and learning with us.So I guess we where headed for an ice age,if the moon had co-operated.
ROFLMAO! Even if he did it would be an honor but Anthony has far more integrity than those who throw around such baseless allegations. Clearly I have his permission to repost this here so the global cooling scare of the 1970s can stop being denied.
That is the full episode of – In Search of… “The Coming Ice Age” [1978], where I took the intro clip from in the main article. The show was rerun in the 90s on A&E and The History Channel with slight editing changes to the intro and music so there could be 3 slightly different versions out there but they are all the same exact show from 1978.
Hello Poptech! Permission to repost your article to Deviantart, if I may!
This one is a smoking gun mentioning a 1.5 deg. C. Increase in global temp before the decline started in the 70’s:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/access/id/37739/description/CHILLING_POSSIBILITIES
Correction, make that a 1.1 deg. C increase.
there are indeed a lot of popular media that in the 70’s narrated a coming ice age scare;
it’s a bit like today while some media and blogs again are talking / dreaming / being afraid of a cooler sun, a new Maunder minimum, that will compensate for global warming and lead to an ice age;
you could take Wally Broecker as a fine example of a gifted scientist who just did his work back in those 70’s while the popular press people were busy with their coming ice age stories;
In the article Happy 35th birthday, global warming! Stefan Rahmstorf wrote that on 8 August 1975, Wally Broecker published his paper “Are we on the brink of a pronounced global warming?” in the journal Science.
Here is the link for the realclimate article:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2010/07/happy-35th-birthday-global-warming/
another group that didn’t follow the ice-age craziness are the people of the Club of Rome who in 1972 wrote their report Limits to growth. They explained that industrial growth would lead to exponential growth of the atmospheric CO2 concentrations, which would lead to warming (and not to an iceage)
so the lesson is: stick to the scientists and be carefull with popular press and blogs;
During the 1970s the media promoted global cooling alarmism with dire threats of a new ice age. Extreme weather events were hyped as signs of the coming apocalypse and man-made pollution was blamed as the cause.
Man-made pollution caused some cooling, mostly through aerosol seeded clouds. We don’t have data to say how much. But when we cleaned up the pollution, it warmed. And when we reached the point of no serious atmospheric pollution left to clean up, it stopped warming.
Surprise, surprise.
I’d like to thank Oldjim for his alertness and urge to communicate. He did say ‘dead ringer’, so I guess he read it. I have made the same mistake, repeatedly. You’d think I’d learn before blogiating.
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