For every person dedicated to solving climate change, it seems as if there are other individuals equally as dedicated to proving that climate change does not exist at all. Research findings from the 1970’s have only spurned some of these ‘skeptics’ along.
In the 1970’s, some research into climate change produced models that predicted global cooling, rather than global warming, due to aerosol emissions. These models have since been proven to be incorrect, and largely irrelevant due to the Clean Air Act that limited aerosol emissions in the late 1970’s. You may be wondering, if the research was proven wrong, and not many scientists agreed with it, how could it have possibly caused a big enough panic to warrant the name: The Global Cooling Scare of the 1970’s. The answer is simple, media.
The few scientists whose research seemed to show a decrease in temperature were found by the news. With a striking headline like ‘The Next Ice Age is Coming’ or ‘How To Survive The Next Ice Age’, the media was able to take a relatively small issue, and turn it into a media frenzy. In fact, they made the idea so popular that even today skeptics still use this false information to perpetuate the idea that global warming isn’t happening. Even going as far as to photoshop old magazine covers from reputable sources to spread this false claim. An example, from a Times Magazine is shown below:
The magazine cover above is a popular image that circulates now on social media sites, urging people to not believe scientists because “this is what they were saying in the 70’s.” However, this magazine cover was actually put out in 2007 and reads “The Global Warming Survival Guide.”
As you can see, the media can play a big role in the way people perceive climate change and the actions individuals are taking to help prevent increased damaging effects. The moral of this story is, make sure you research the information you are seeing, even from us. We cite our sources so you know where we go for our information, but there are lots of people who will spread false information just to further a cause.
So, always remember to figure out what the factual information is regarding climate change, and remember to stay tuned next week where we will be discussing global WARMING and its controversies.
- The Edible Landscape Initiative Team
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