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Originally Posted by Rochard
Blah blah blah... Tweny years ago it was getting too cold..... I don't belive any of it.
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That was actually a theory around 35 years ago that, unlike "global warming" never received much popular backing among scientists.
Here's something I wrote on that exact point a few weeks ago when someone directed me to an article regarding "The Next Ice Age" in Time Magazine:
"I've read the article you listed, and a bit more on the subject over the last hour, and it appears that the idea arose from a greater understanding of global climate systems in the 70's paired with a decrease in temperature from the 40's to 70's. It was a new science working with recent data. The idea of "global cooling" was hyped by the media though it never gained any real scientific support. In example, to quote Dr. B.J. Mason of the Royal Meteorological Society as written in the QJRMS, 1976, p 473 (Symons Memorial Lecture):
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At present we are in a warm interglacial period, the duration of these in the past have averaged about 50 kyr. It is probable that the present very warm interval, which has already lasted for about 10 kyr, will eventually give way to a period of colder climate. Statistically the chances that such a transition will begin in the next 100 years may be placed at about 1 in 100 but the full drop of 10 oC or so would probably be spread over several kyr. There is a rather higher probability that a cooling may set in but not be carried through to the full glacial conditions. The chances of a prolonged cold, but far from glacial, spell within the next century, with average temperatures lower by about 1 oC, such as occurred between 1500 and 1850, must be put quite high, about 1 in 5. However, there is no physical basis for predicting either the timing or magnitude of such changes because we do not yet understand the underlying causes. Likewise there is no real basis for the alarmist predictions of an imminent ice age which have largely been based on extrapolation of the 30-year trend of falling temperatures between 1940 and 1965. Apart from the strong dubiety of making a forecast from such a highly fluctuating record by extrapolation of such a short period trend, there is now evidence that the trend has been arrested.
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And it's been later noted by a myriad of scientists - armed with that greater understanding of global climate systems and a lot more data - that we're most certainly in a stage of warming. The idea also seems to get hyped by the media - but the difference is that this time, unlike with "global cooling," the general concept has wide scientific support."
