[Coral-List] Climate talks in the 1970s

[Tupper, Mark (WorldFish)]

Hi Ben,

I would say that the cooling theory in the late 70's and early 80's had
nowhere near the level of consensus that global warming has today. Part
of this is because science was much less interdisciplinary in the
1970-80s than it is today. Today on Coral-List we have taxonomists,
physiologists, ecologists, geologists, paleontologists, meteorologists,
climatologists, physical, chemical, biological and geological
oceanographers, economists, sociologists and anthropologists to name
just a few. I'm sure I have left several groups out, so my apologies to
them. All of these people have a deep interest in climate change and the
way it affects biological, physical and social systems. In the 1970's,
the global cooling debate didn't seem to extend much past climate
scientists per se. I'm sure people from other disciplines were very
interested in the outcome of the climate research, as cooling would of
course affect the planet on a global scale. However, there wasn't (from
what I could see as a high school/undergraduate student) the same level
of involvement from other disciplines that we see today with regard to
global warming. But maybe someone older than me would have a different
perspective...

Cheers,

Mark Tupper


-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
[mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Ben
Richards
Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 3:33 AM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: [Coral-List] Climate talks in the 1970s

To answer a subsequent question raised by Dr. Shinn's YouTube videos, I
would be interested to hear from "older" coral-listers if the level of
scientific consensus on global cooling in the 1970s was anywhere near
the current level of consensus on climate change?  The YouTube videos of
History channel retrospectives on Discovery Channel-style TV shows from
the 1970s are interesting, but certainly do not carry as much weight as
a similar body of peer-reviewed papers in reputable journals.  My
impression, though it may be false, is that the ice-age predictions of
the 1970s did not have nearly the level of scientific backing as do
current hypotheses?  Am I correct?


~ben

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
Benjamin L. Richards
Graduate Student
Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology
46-007 Lilipuna Rd
Kaneohe, HI 96744

work: (808) 236-7440
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email: br at hawaii.edu
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http://www.hawaii.edu/HIMB/welcome.html
	


"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what
nobody has thought."  
				- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi -


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