Why did'nt global warming happen in the 70's??

Question

I remember smog being so bad in the 70's you could'nt see.
Cars were so inefficiant and polutting. Factories operated un regulated. But it was supposedly cooler. Now cars burn clean, you can't even commit suicide in you garage. In fact you can almost breath the exaust of modern cars. Factories are extremly regulated now. Yet the globe is warming? Just your answers please,,,,no copy and pasting links. I can copy and paste global cooling links too. Just ideas, just adress my question with what you think. THINK

Answer 1

I think you have a bunch of folks blowing smoke...

Dana couldn't resist the cut and paste - couldn't resist demonstrating ignorance of the very same cut and paste:

"From 1940-1970 there wasn't much warming and a few brief periods of cooling. This is because during that period there was increased volcanic activity and human aerosol emissions. The resulting particulates blocked sunlight and caused global dimming and cooling. Since then, we've cleaned up our emissions (as you point out) and there hasn't been much volcanic activity."

Increased volcanic activity: NO - from 1930 to 1960, volcanic forcing was POSITIVE (causing warming), finally dipping to a cooling effect through the early 60s before rising again to a slight heating effect around 1975. Since then, there are major cooling dips in the early 80s and 90s - likely St. Helens and Pinatubo - the MOST volcanic forcing of the century taking place since then, totally opposite of what Dana is claiming.

Sulfate emissions decreased after 70s: NO - except for a mild reprieve in the early 40s (totally opposite of what the "modeled" graph demonstrates) there has been an increasing amount of sulfates and particulate emissions from 1930 to present.

So, you have increasing negative forcing from both aerosols and volcanoes AFTER the end of the cooling period. "Global dimming" is greater now than during the mid-century cooling period, but alarmists want us to beleive that, all of a sudden, the laws of physics changed to favor global warming.

You are absolutely right - from the advent of WWII in the late 30s through the post-war industrial boom, we were burning fuel at an incredible rate. Unregulated factories, cars that got a third of the gas mileage of today's. The smog that you saw in the 70's was a visual marker of the amount of CO2 we were pumping into the air.

The truth of the matter is that the Global Warming crowd hates the mid century cooling period almost as much as they hate the medieval warming period because it exposes just how slapped together their modeling is.

We don't know exactly why we experienced cooling, just like we don't know exactly why we're warming today (or if we're even warming).

Answer 2

A good question--and actually the answer is fairly straightforward. First, there's pretty clear evidence that global warming was already starting even before the 1970s. However, the rate was a lot less (we hadn't dumped nearly as much CO2 into the atmosphere)--plus the instrumentation for studying such things was still in its infancy. So scientists were just starting to be aware of the warming trend--but mostly weren't at all sure about it at that point.

Your question about smog is also a good one. But--not all chemicals, etc. act as greenhouse gases. Some ("soot" from many industrial processes actually BLOCK, rather than trap heat) don't have a heat-trapping effect at all. Much of the kind of pollution you're referring to, although easier to see, doesn't trap heat the way CO2 does. So, for the most part, that kind of pollution, while it had very negative effects (acid rain, respiratory diseases, etc), did not contrigute to global warming.

Answer 3

You've also got to remember that the United States isn't the only country on the planet. In the 70's, China, for example, was much more rural than it is now, and most people there did not own cars. Many countries like China, India, etc. have large populations and have become very industrialized, thus adding to the emissions. In this country, we are using much more electricity (and how do we make that?) and fuel than ever.
What I can't understand, because I know where this question is coming from, is why the right-wingers are so reluctant to admit that global climate change is happening. And now that they're finally saying it might be occurring, they don't want to admit that humans aren't contributing to it. As far as I know, nobody's blaming Republicans for it. Why so defensive?

Answer 4

You're mixing smog and pollution with carbon dioxide.

Smog and pollution particles actually cools the air because the sunlight can't get through down to earth. Carbon dioxide does the opposite. It traps the heat from the sun and stops it from going back out to space.

It's basic really. Carbon dioxide is not a "pollutant" in the old traditional meaning but it adds on to the greenhouse effect, and like the glass in our greenhouses it's invisible for the eye.

Answer 5

It did, there weren't many scientists sold on the idea of Global cooling, and the effects misinterpreted as global cooling by a few was actually the effects of Global warming. Unfortunately, most people relied on journalists as their only source of information, and didn't research the claims by the journalists reporting the opinions of a very small group of scientists.
It has been proven that many of the effects of global warming are masked by soot and ash in the air. this is because it blocks the heat from the sun for a short time effectively reducing surface temperatures, while global warming effects in the upper atmosphere continue unabated.

Answer 6

Because in the 70s the scare of the day was the coming ice age. NY, Chi, Boston etc were going to be covered with glaciers. Now the earth has a "fever"

Answer 7

I'm not going to answer your question with an uninformed opinion, and I don't know why you're asking for that. I'm going to give you the scientific explanation.

For starters, you're talking about smog. Carbon dioxide is not visible. It's carbon dioxide that's primarily responsible for global warming. Stuff that you can see in the air blocks sunlight and causes global dimming and global cooling.

From 1940-1970 there wasn't much warming and a few brief periods of cooling. This is because during that period there was increased volcanic activity and human aerosol emissions. The resulting particulates blocked sunlight and caused global dimming and cooling. Since then, we've cleaned up our emissions (as you point out) and there hasn't been much volcanic activity. In addition, we've increased our greenhouse gas emissions. Thus global warming has accelerated. You can see all this in the graphic below.

Answer 8

It did happen in the '70s. I studied potential effects of "the greenhouse gas effect" (that was it's nom de plume back then) on the geological record. Just because you hadn't heard of it doesn't mean it didn't exist. I've been doing a chicken little dance for years on the topic and the normal response was "Suuurre, riiight, uh huh, keep dreamin'!"

People aren't saying that as much any more. Now that there are floods and tornadoes, snow one day and +40C the next people are expecting the 7 horsemen to show up any day. Now they are taking it seriously.

Quid pro quo:

Did you seriously think before you asked the question?

Answer 9

SHHHHHH!!!!!! Don't confuse the issue with facts!

Al Gore is all knowing and all powerful! you should be groveling at his feet thanking him for telling us how horrible we are and paying him millions of dollars to save us from evil climate change! Oh and ignore the fact he flies around in private jets, his house uses more energy than nearly any other home in the country, that he owns a zinc mine that has been cited for pollution and that he owns the company selling "carbon offsets".

I mean why bring up historical and archaeological facts about periods of time like the "little ice age" that shows dramatic and sudden climate changes long before Industrialization?

Or show proof that the fall of the Babylonian empire in 6000 BC, was probably caused by severe droughts over many years. I mean severe climatic changes are only caused by industrialization right?

So please, do every one a favor and put down your facts, common sense, reason, logic and proof and begin worshiping Al Gore!

He loves you and earth! so give in to his teachings and make this a better world...

Answer 10

I know, right? I distinctly remember that back in the 70's these so-called "scientists" were predicting another Ice Age.

Actually, despite what the liberals say, America isn't one of the biggest offenders. Countries like China and India have become much more industrial in the past 30 years and have no emissions standards or clean energy practices whatsoever. China burns coal like it's nobody's business. And many, many Chinese are buying cars. 20 years ago, only wealthy Communist party officials had cars. Now every Wang, Chan and Li has 'em. (Don't think I'm anti-Chinese, I'm married to one!).

"cars burn clean, you can't even commit suicide in you garage' heh, heh, thought of that but gave it up for exactly the reason you state! Darn environmentalists!