I have just completed my tax return and in a mood of drained exhaustion combined with fear and loathing for the demand that will now thud onto my front door-mat in a few weeks time I have surrendered to idleness and lethargy by quoting another blogger, the ever-interesting Devil's Kitchen who has, rather ungallantly, drawn together a fascinating pot-pourri of quotes from the 'Global Glums' of yester-year, emphasis added by DK:
Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the cooling trend… But they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century.—Peter Gwynne, Newsweek, April 28, 1975.
[T]he threat of the new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind.—Nigel Calder, International Wildlife, July, 1975.
The cooling has already killed hundreds of thousands of people in poor nations… If it continues, and no strong measures are taken to deal with it, the cooling will cause world famine, world chaos, and probably world war, and this could all come by the year 2000.—Lowell Ponte, The Cooling, 1976.
The continued rapid cooling of the earth since World War II is also in accord with the increased global air pollution associated with industrialisation, mechanisation, urbanisation and an exploding population.—Reid Bryson, Global Ecology: Readings Towards A Rational Strategy For Man, 1971.
An increase by only a factor of four in global aerosol background concentration may be sufficient to reduce the surface temperature by as much as 3.5 degrees Kelvin… sufficient to trigger an ice-age.—Dr S I Rasool and Dr S H Schneider, Science, July 9, 1971.
This last is quite interesting, because then Dr Schneider pops up again, describing nicely the climate change advocates' methodology.
[W]e have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we may have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.—Quoted by Jonathan Schell in The Fate Of The Earth, 1982.
"Global Warming" was a term first coined by a BBC Journalist in the 70s. Sorry but I cannot find a link (or shred of evidence).
It was proposed as a theory to combat global cooling. I.e. the world is cooling down but hopefully if humans create enough Co2 then it should keep us warm.
It is possibly why "global warming" is used as a term to describe human behaviour affecting climate.
Therefore a person would not be a hypocrite if they were to state that they don't believe in global warming, but they do believe that the earth is warming up.
I believe the earth is warming up, I just don't believe that human beings have any part in it. If anyone needs proof that the temperature of the earth fluctuates, they need only to look at the seasons.
And if anyone doubts the effects of the sun on the planet, then they are welcome to put on their beach clothes and sunbath on my balcony at night.
Posted by: Alex Fear | Tuesday, 22 January 2008 at 22:17
Welcome back, Alex. Actually, according to what I have been reading recently (and in so far as I understand it, which is a struggle for a non-scientist like me), we are possibly entering a cooling period. I gather that the sun has just stood on its head again, by which I mean that from time to time it switches polarity (or what was once up is now down and south is now north - or something like that), anyway, that has an effect on solar activity and is likely to lower temperatures on earth. I can't prove it, but I agree with you that the sun is likely to be far and away the main driving force for our globe's climate.
Posted by: David Duff | Wednesday, 23 January 2008 at 09:01
With you there Duff.
Regardless of whether it's going to get hotter or colder I think we have to treat it like we treat an airplane crash or a meteor strike, unfortunate but nothing we can do about it.
Of course we should all recycle and not be wasteful but that's just good stewardship.
Posted by: Alex Fear | Wednesday, 23 January 2008 at 20:52
"Stewardship" - what an excellent word! Of course, that is exactly the right approach, but conducted in way that is sensitive to poorer people who need cheap food and energy. Just today we have had sundry Eurofanatics pontificating on how they intend to raise the price of energy for Europeans because, of course, they, themselves, can well afford such increases but they never give a thought to the less well off who can ill afford such a drain on their meagre resources.
Anyway - stewardship - I like that!
Posted by: David Duff | Wednesday, 23 January 2008 at 22:39