Comments on: Could global warming drive us mental?

By: Tom Marcinko

Tom Marcinko — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:59:26 +0000

A few old news items do not a consensus make. I find the denial and flat-earthism over this topic to be depressing, not to mention a bit embarrassing.

By: Robert Koslover

Robert Koslover — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:19:14 +0000

Thank you, Paul. Below is another consensus that may be of interest. It’s funny now, but it wasn’t funny at the time. I was a teenager then and I remember being quite worried about it. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/13/AR2009021302514.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns. EXCERPT:
In the 1970s, “a major cooling of the planet” was “widely considered inevitable” because it was “well established” that the Northern Hemisphere’s climate “has been getting cooler since about 1950″ (New York Times, May 21, 1975). Although some disputed that the “cooling trend” could result in “a return to another ice age” (the Times, Sept. 14, 1975), others anticipated “a full-blown 10,000-year ice age” involving “extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation” (Science News, March 1, 1975, and Science magazine, Dec. 10, 1976, respectively). The “continued rapid cooling of the Earth” (Global Ecology, 1971) meant that “a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery” (International Wildlife, July 1975). “The world’s climatologists are agreed” that we must “prepare for the next ice age” (Science Digest, February 1973). Because of “ominous signs” that “the Earth’s climate seems to be cooling down,” meteorologists were “almost unanimous” that “the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century,” perhaps triggering catastrophic famines (Newsweek cover story, “The Cooling World,” April 28, 1975). Armadillos were fleeing south from Nebraska, heat-seeking snails were retreating from Central European forests, the North Atlantic was “cooling down about as fast as an ocean can cool,” glaciers had “begun to advance” and “growing seasons in England and Scandinavia are getting shorter” (Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 27, 1974).

By: Screen Sleuth

Screen Sleuth — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 19:32:37 +0000

Disasters and fear of the Earth’s balance getting screwed up upsets and depresses some people? Really? Say it isn’t so!

By: Paul Raven

Paul Raven — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:11:08 +0000

Is there a scientific consensus on that, Robert?

By: Charles Pierce, Australia

Charles Pierce, Australia — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 04:56:18 +0000

I was interested to find this blog. I know that the mental health of many people has been affected over the years by big scary events that are given much loud, vivid news coverage at the time. This is an artefact of modern mass-communication technology. 20 years ago I had a book published on different economic concepts to point the way to a sustainable world economy. Someone who liked the book contacted me this year to suggest that I update and re-publish it as a blog. She set up the blog, and the book is now complete on the blog in a series of postings. There are now also additional pieces on global warming and other subjects. Here is the link:

http://www.economicsforaroundearth.com

With all good wishes,
Charles Pierce