Re:U.S. had its coldest February in more than 30 years
by raarts on Friday March 12, 2021 @07:13PM
(#26442553)
> not necessarily representative of climate research at the time
If that's true it's hard to understand why the majority of the press was publishing information opposite to the state of the climate research at the time. Unlikely to me.
Re:U.S. had its coldest February in more than 30 years
by aw1621107 on Friday March 12, 2021 @10:53PM
(#26443785)
> If that's true it's hard to understand why the majority of the press was publishing information opposite to the state of the climate research at the time.
Those stories do have a kernel of truth, as there does appear to have been a cooling trend at the time; it sort of comes down to the difference between "What if this trend continues?" and "This trend is likely to continue and here are the consequences".
At least in the sampling of news stories in the paper I linked earlier, the quoted scientists seem to lean more towards "we need more data" and/or a more long-term warming trend, if they offered a long-term prediction at all.
I mean, I'm not denying that an imminent ice age was on the public consciousness at some point; as you point out, articles saying as much can be found relatively easily. I'm just saying that that isn't necessarily representative of climate research at the time.