It comes at the very end.
Show this to Uncle Dittohead and Aunt Teabag next time you hear “In the 1970s they worried about an Ice Age”.
Interesting sociological note – the cautionary notes about this then-wildly popular political initiative seem to come mostly from the left – in concerns that our worries about pollution will overtake drives for social justice, and against poverty, etc.
See more on the “70s Ice Age” crock below.
That bit with Javits is important for people to see. In those days, in NY, most of the Republicans also listed themselves as “liberals” and many of the Democrats as “Conservatives” (you could be in more than one party at a time). The Northern Republicans were by and large more conservative than the southern Dems, less than the NE Dems.
Later, the southern Dems all became Republicans and the Northern Republicans died off.
Also, a nice guest post on my blog about the 1970s myth, by David Kirtley:
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2013/06/04/the-1970s-ice-age-myth-and-time-magazine-covers-by-david-kirtley/
Funny you should mention Earth Day and climate. Have you seen this one?
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=16404
The world will be “…11 degrees colder in the year 2000 (this is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age),” Kenneth Watt, speaking at Swarthmore University, April 19, 1970.
Brilliant stuff!
And consider the source – a right-wing libertarian think-tank. Thank you so much for this objective, proof-sourced, and scientific analysis – you have changed my mind on the topic, and I look forward to more trenchant revelations from you. Not.
right wing talking points from 2008?
Time to update your troll file.
also, watch the second video so as not to embarrass yourself this way in the future.
remember, I’m here to help.
Just Google “National Center for Policy Analysis”. This was from the third hit:
The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) is a non-profit American think tank[3] whose goals are to develop and promote private alternatives to government regulation and control. Topics addressed include reforms in health care, taxes, Social Security, welfare, education and environmental regulation.
The NCPA was founded in February 1983[4] by British businessman Antony Fisher[5] together with Dallas businessmen Russell Perry (CEO of Republic Financial Services),[6] Wayne Calloway (CEO of Frito-Lay), John F. Stephens (CEO of Employers Insurance of Texas),[7] and Jere W. Thompson (CEO of the Southland Corporation).
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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, politics has replaced religion in many peoples lives. So-called “think tanks” have become the new church. There is very little thinking going on here; it is all political dogma (a.k.a. faith) so you may as well refer to them as “non-think tanks”
Sorry guys, Kenneth Watt said this in 1970. Here’s another source, the US government, I thin, you can trust it is real:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2000-05-02/pdf/CREC-2000-05-02-pt1-PgH2346.pdf
One ecologist, Kenneth Watt, proclaimed
that, ‘‘The world will be about
4 degrees colder . . . in 1990, but 11 degrees
colder in the year 2000. This is
about twice what it would take to put
us into an ice age.’’
peer reviewed science literature is an unfamiliar concept to you, I guess.
The only thing is that the quote was “Earth Day” 1970 Kenneth Watt, ecologist: “The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”
That is a prediction? “If present trends continue” Note it was deleted in your quote!
I’m certainly no expert in this area but I have read a lot of books on the subject. There was a short time (late 1960s – early 1970s) when a minority of American scientists in North America measured a slight amount of cooling “only in North America”. Later analysis revealed this was due to automobile pollution (anyone remember “smog in the news” and responsible governments taking action by forcing automobile manufacturers to install pollution control devices?). A usual it was the media who was mostly to blame because they know that publishing bad-news and/or doom-and-gloom sells more copies.
But to trot out “cooling in the 1970s” when science has moved on shows a certain kind of “fundamentalism” (see my other post about people trading in religious-faith for political-faith)
I was up to my eyeballs in various kinds of environmental issues around the time of Earth Day and also read “a lot of books” on all of them—-I had many feet of shelves devoted to things ranging from the SST to toxic industrial work environments to whaling to nuclear reactor design and operation.
No one was yet very concerned with global warming-global cooling in 1970. The big issues were clean air and water, the impacts of toxic wastes and chemicals, overpopulation, resource depletion, habitat destruction, nuclear power, and nuclear weapons (to say nothing of the social issues that Javits mentioned, most of which we haven’t made all that much progress on in 45 years).
We kicked the can down the road when technology and the slaves contained in fossil fuels “saved” us, we have seen the human population double since the late 1960’s, and now AGW is an undeniable problem that exacerbates many others. It always boils down to too many people living at an unsustainable level of consumption.
Unfortunately the “fundamentalists” (capitalists-free marketers-profit and growth seekers) are still practicing their “religion” and the media is enabling them. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
LOL Bart T does love to grasp at flimsy straws.
His “source” for the Watts quote is “the US government, he thinks”? LMAO at that—-the Congressional Record is a place where any and all kinds of BS are made part of the “record”, and in many cases have NO FREAKING relationship to what happened on the floor of the House or Senate.
This “citation” looks like one of the “add-ons” legislators insert as a favor to some constituency—-like speaking in favor of National Hockey Puck Day or a movement to get Grandpa to trim his ear and nose hair (or change his underwear more often). This congressman was obviously whoring for campaign contributions from one denier group or another.
And will someone tell me why Bart thinks it’s important for us to hear the opinion from 75 years ago of an ecologist with no background in climate science? He did say it. So what? Does it have relevance or is Bart just seeking attention (again)?
(PS The NCPA is, as G Baker points out, a libertarian “not think” tank, and you can trace its roots to Heartland)
OOOPS—-Watts said it 45 years ago—-I’m the 75 year old thing here.