How global warming became cool

Once embraced only by tree huggers but now by Madonna, Sting and other stars, global warming had a turbulent ride before being adopted as a celebrity campaign issue in Saturday's Live Earth concerts. For much of its history, climate change has faced indifference or ignorance, thanks mainly to skeptics. Thirty years ago, only a tiny number of individuals-" climate scientists and the granola and sandals brigade", says US historian Spencer weart-took notice of the idea that unbridled burning of oil, gas and coal might eventually mess up the climate system. In fact, the apocalyptic fear of the mid 1970s was not global warming-but global cooling.

 

This was the notion that Earth was about to be plunged into a deep freeze, as shifts in its orbit and axis unleashed a catastrophic drop in warmth from the Sun. But evidence for the greenhouse effect was already trickling out. In 1979, the US National Academy of Sciences issued a landmark report, backing predictions that a doubling of carbon dioxide would cause huge atmospheric warming.

 (The New Indian Express, 6^th  July 2007)