If so I would like information on this.
2007-04-07 20:06:25 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Environment
Yes, there was scientific "consensus" that we were entering a new ice age in the 1970s. It was so serious that it was a cover story in Time Magazine (see the attached link.) Obviously, the scientific consensus was wrong back then as the 3.5 decades of cooling ended in the mid 70s, much to everyones relief. Since then we've seen 3 decades of warming which will probably end sometime soon.
2007-04-09 04:40:08 · answer #1 · answered by dsl67 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If you look hard enough, you can probably find some claim from some scientist somewhere for just about anything. There is no "rule" that says what someone can claim. But there is a tradition that when a scientist says something it is subject to criticism from every other scientist. After a period of time the claims which other scientists find credible, and which are supported by evidence, tend to become the consensus and are endorsed by large numbers of scientists. This is exactly what has happened with Global Climate change.
Despite the ignorant and desperate claims of the climate change deniers, there is excellent and solid evidence that the current rapid climate change is caused by humans.
This has now been confirmed by thousands of refereed studies, and reported repeatedly in the IPCC report and reports from other international groups of thousands of top scientists from more than 100 countries.
It is not just the same old climate change, it is not changes in the sun's activity. It is not a liberal plot. It is hard science, confirmed many times over.
Al Gore, a very smart and well educated man, got the science exactly right in his film "Inconvenient Truth." Fortunately, scientists all over America have realized this and faculty at over 1000 universities around the country have promoted showings of this film which will result in over 20 million school children seeing the film this month for Earth Day. At least those kids will soon have a much more realistic and accurate view of the situation than the folks who wrote most of these answers.
2007-04-08 09:42:27 · answer #2 · answered by matt 7 · 2⤊ 3⤋
I was there and yes the scientists of the day were saying we were heading for a new Ice age due to GLOBAL COOLING! They did have accurate records that went back about 100 years, so yes they had data. They saw a decrease in the average temperature over the last 10 years and of course assumed that it was caused by burning fossil fuels and heavy industry. Sound familiar yet to today? A large majority of scientist agreed that there was GLOBAL COOLING, and that it was caused by man. They also believed we were running out of oil and would be completely out in 25 years. That was almost thirty years ago. Doomsday sellers have been around before and they will come around again. Look at the facts objectively and use reason. Our air quality is actually improved since the seventies. We have gotten lead out of gasoline and are improving our technologies every day. We should live as clean as possible, but for those who blow the doomsday horn, it just makes you sound silly.
2007-04-08 06:46:14 · answer #3 · answered by MSG 4 · 2⤊ 4⤋
That was more a case of "Ice ages happen about such and such often, and we haven't had one for such and such a long time, so we must be due for one" kind of thing.
There wasn't any actual records in temperature to back up the theory, it was just supposition based on past temperature fluctuations.
Global warming now is real, and it has been actually measured and isn't just a theory, so that's the main difference.
2007-04-08 03:23:14 · answer #4 · answered by Sum guy 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Yes, I remember it quite well. It was based on the current trends in global temperatures at the time. If you look at recorded temperatures, you will see that there have been several periods of cooling that interupt the longer term warming trends.
2007-04-08 12:28:17 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
There were a few, nothing at all like the consensus on global warming today. The scientists who worried about cooling were more like the few skeptics of today. More details here:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=94
2007-04-08 12:03:05 · answer #6 · answered by Bob 7 · 1⤊ 3⤋
I remember it but really can't give you any info on it. People were joking about the coming Ice Age, but that's about all I remember.
2007-04-08 03:10:13 · answer #7 · answered by lyllyan 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
wasn't born yet but I have heard about it. keyword there is "scientist" not scientists
2007-04-08 03:22:41 · answer #8 · answered by Aaron P 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No.
2007-04-08 03:11:17 · answer #9 · answered by gp4rts 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋