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... he is at the fore of a small group of scientists proposing a quick technological fix: a “Plan B” to slow climate change and cool the earth almost overnight via massive human interventions. Among their science-fiction-style ideas: the deployment of millions of lenses the size of doughnuts in geo-stationary orbit between the earth and the sun, the creation of vast banks of artificial clouds over the world’s oceans, covering deserts with reflective material, and Keith’s preferred solution...
This isn’t a question of science. It’s a question of whether Americans can trust what the media tell them about science.
World renowned climatologists as recently as the 1970s were convinced that the world was entering a prolonged period of global cooling. Newsweek reported in April of 1975 that meteorologists "are almost unanimous" that catastrophic famines were sure to result from the global cooling.
Prominent scientists at the time were even making wild propositions about the drastic steps world governments should take to counter the cooling trend. In some of the more extreme cases, there were plans to divert Arctic rivers and to cover the poles with black soot to melt the polar ice caps to stave off the next ice age.
It was five years before the turn of the century and major media were warning of disastrous climate change. Page six of The New York Times was headlined with the serious concerns of “geologists.” Only the president at the time wasn’t Bill Clinton; it was Grover Cleveland. And the Times wasn’t warning about global warming – it was telling readers the looming dangers of a new ice age.
The year was 1895, and it was just one of four different time periods in the last 100 years when major print media predicted an impending climate crisis. Each prediction carried its own elements of doom, saying Canada could be “wiped out” or lower crop yields would mean “billions will die.”
Just as the weather has changed over time, so has the reporting – blowing hot or cold with short-term changes in temperature.
Following the ice age threats from the late 1800s, fears of an imminent and icy catastrophe were compounded in the 1920s by Arctic explorer Donald MacMillan and an obsession with the news of his polar expedition. As the Times put it on Feb. 24, 1895, “Geologists Think the World May Be Frozen Up Again.”
Those concerns lasted well into the late 1920s. But when the earth’s surface warmed less than half a degree, newspapers and magazines responded with stories about the new threat. Once again the Times was out in front, cautioning “the earth is steadily growing warmer.”
After a while, that second phase of climate cautions began to fade. By 1954, Fortune magazine was warming to another cooling trend and ran an article titled “Climate – the Heat May Be Off.” As the United States and the old Soviet Union faced off, the media joined them with reports of a more dangerous Cold War of Man vs. Nature.
The New York Times ran warming stories into the late 1950s, but it too came around to the new fears. Just three decades ago, in 1975, the paper reported: “A Major Cooling Widely Considered to Be Inevitable.”
That trend, too, cooled off and was replaced by the current era of reporting on the dangers of global warming. Just six years later, on Aug. 22, 1981, the Times quoted seven government atmospheric scientists who predicted global warming of an “almost unprecedented magnitude.”
In all, the print news media have warned of four separate climate changes in slightly more than 100 years – global cooling, warming, cooling again, and, perhaps not so finally, warming. Some current warming stories combine the concepts and claim the next ice age will be triggered by rising temperatures – the theme of the 2004 movie “The Day After Tomorrow.”
Despite all the historical shifting from one position to another, many in the media no longer welcome opposing views on the climate. CBS reporter Scott Pelley went so far as to compare climate change skeptics with Holocaust deniers.
“If I do an interview with [Holocaust survivor] Elie Wiesel,” Pelley asked, “am I required as a journalist to find a Holocaust denier?” he said in an interview on March 23 with CBS News’s PublicEye blog.
He added that the whole idea of impartial journalism just didn’t work for climate stories. “There becomes a point in journalism where striving for balance becomes irresponsible,” he said.
Pelley’s comments ignored an essential point: that 30 years ago, the media were certain about the prospect of a new ice age. And that is only the most recent example of how much journalists have changed their minds on this essential debate.
Some in the media would probably argue that they merely report what scientists tell them, but that would be only half true.
Journalists decide not only what they cover; they also decide whether to include opposing viewpoints. That’s a balance lacking in the current “debate.”
This isn’t a question of science. It’s a question of whether Americans can trust what the media tell them about science.
Originally posted by infolurker
LOL... same crazy crap they wanted to do in the 1970's ... except then they were screaming "GLOBAL COOLING / ICE AGE!"
Did you know this is the 4th incarnation of climate doom? Probably not since that is not what the media wants you to know... yes, 1895, 1920's / 30's, 1970's, Today... REMEMBER - THESE SAME NUTJOBS wanted to cover the polar icecaps in black soot to avoid "THE UNAVOIDABLE" ice age.. Wow, aren't we all Glad that they didn't do that?
I also must assume that you believe the evil media has been spreading climate doom lies over the last hundred+ years in an effort to.....
Originally posted by TheAssociate
I also must assume that you believe the evil media has been spreading climate doom lies over the last hundred+ years in an effort to.....
Let me help you finish that thought: Have an excuse that can't be disproved to make tax-slaves of all of us.
TA
Originally posted by infolurker
LOL... same crazy crap they wanted to do in the 1970's ... except then they were screaming "GLOBAL COOLING / ICE AGE!"
Did you know this is the 4th incarnation of climate doom? Probably not since that is not what the media wants you to know... yes, 1895, 1920's / 30's, 1970's, Today... REMEMBER - THESE SAME NUTJOBS wanted to cover the polar icecaps in black soot to avoid "THE UNAVOIDABLE" ice age.. Wow, aren't we all Glad that they didn't do that?
Originally posted by audas
................
The saddest part about this profoundly mundane "theory" is that it derails quality conversation about the issue and what to do - it really is sad.
.........
Originally posted by Extralien
Now the deserts withe reflective material is really easy to do.. You need tons and tons of tin foil... and ATS'ers already have tons and tons for our heads so our donations will be greatly received and ATS will become famous for saving the planet and we will no longer be labeled as conspiracy nutters.
The artificial clouds are already happening and you'll find loads of info here on ATS... just search for chem trails;
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...