Why was global cooling feared only 30 years ago?

Question

Are we a bit wishy washy here? Is this science falsey so called? Can Al Gore reverse this dreaded heating or cooling?

Answer 1

I don't recall much furor over global cooling in the 70's, but we didn't have the Internet then. That was rather quickly displaced by the fear of depletion of the ozone layer because the hole in the ozone layer over the South polar regions was discovered. Laboratory experiments showed that a chlorine atom could be knocked off a CFC molecule by UV radiation found only above the stratosphere, and that this chlorine atom could catalytically react with ozone to convert it to oxygen 6 or 7 times before it could be bound by reaction with another chlorine atom or some other substance. The scientists making this discovery were awarded the Nobel Prize, and the ozone depletion panic was full blown. Certain CFC's were banned worldwide while other, lighter CFC's were not, all the time ignoring a search for any possible transport mechanism which would get a chlorine atom above the stratosphere, let alone the vastly heavier CFC's. The man-made global cooling theories were also abandoned because of the eruptions of Mt St. Helens, Pinatubo, and other stratovolcanoes.

Global warming alarmists engage in much the same sort of hyperbole. The only hard data I have been able to find indicates that global warming is probably the least worrisome of human concerns. Opinion and estimates are not hard data, and consensus has always been a poor measure of the accuracy of theories.

Answer 2

Science is based on theories and is not afraid to put up new theories based on evidence. Science is the process of proving or disproving theories and some of the best theories get thrown out when a better one comes along. The main thing is to keep an open mind and not use emotional terms like the ones you used in each sentence.

The main worry in the 1970s was when it was realised that a nuclear winter was possible and we might be able to do the same tning a bit slower with pollution.

Answer 3

Let's see thirty years ago we were going to get water in the atmosphere from burning coal and gasoline which would form more clouds which would reflect the heat and the earth would get cold... Go figure