re: #90 Carl LaFong

Seriously, what happened between 1975 (global cooling) and 2006 (global warming)?

In 1975, Time Magazine (or was it Look?) printed an article for public consumption about a possible coming ice age. It wasn’t like there was any real science behind it, apart from the fact that there had been ice ages ages ago.

Well before 1975, indeed, nearly a century before that, Arrhenius did a pencil and paper calculation suggesting that if atmospheric CO2 were to double, temperatures could rise significantly. With just pencil and paper, he wasn’t able to put the question to bed, but he was able to raise it. The matter has been on science’s radar screen since before radar, in other words.

Now, we’re seeing it materialize. Glaciers have been in retreat since the mid 1900s, including in 1975. The rate of retreat is too great to have been in force over the past 500 or 1000 years. So it’s a new thing. Likewise, permafrost is no longer so perma. And there’s more evidence.

I get a lot of flack here for my conservative views. Please don’t write me off as just another liberal. It’s not just liberals who raise the matter of global warming, and whoever raises the matter, it’s not primarily for the purpose of advancing a hidden agenda. It’s because the problem is real. It’s your problem too, whether you understand that or not. Go get yourself a cup of coffee, paying more than you used to pay because the coffee crops are in trouble around the world as the climate heats up, and reflect.