The media reports on "climate change." 

In 1957, the Associated Press matter-of-factly reported that:

. . . Dr. Joseph Kaplan, UCLA professor and chairman of the U.S. Committee for the 1957 International Geophysical Year, has predicted that ocean levels will rise at least 40 feet and inundate vast areas of the earth in the next 50 or 60 years unless atmospheric temperatures can be controlled. 

The 54-year-old scientist said the burning of fuels is of such magnitude that discharged gasses are creating a "greenhouse" effect over the earth.

Should the oceans rise by 40 feet, their waters would cover parts of New York City, San Francisco, much of Florida, sections of Tokyo and many other coastal cities.

The solution?

Heat control is the answer to the threat, Dr. Kaplan said. "We're working on a method of controlling man's environment and the temperature of the world," he reported. "We've already, fired rockets into the upper atmosphere and discharged chemicals that affect the temperature of the atmosphere.

"Control by man of the earth's weather and temperature is within the realm of practicality now.

"The end result of our studies (of temperature control) will be more important to the survival of man than atomic energy."

In other words, humans are gods. I mean, even Democrats boast about plans to control the earth’s weather and temperature. Or, liberals are tricknologists. But, in any event, some possible follow-up questions are:

In 2008, do New Yorkers really believe that the ocean levels will soon rise to 40 feet?

Is much of Florida doomed?

How many professors liked to use coke in the 1950s?

Do liberal North Americans have a history of trying to control populations through junk science?  

The last question, of course, is the easiest to answer. Still, I’ll let history speak now.

* * *

The Media’s “Climate Change” Narrative 1894-2008

1894: September 6, “The Ice Age In North America . . . But now a change has come upon the forces . . . and the long winter is drawing to a close” (Cambridge City Tribune & Harper’s Magazine) 

1912: October 7, “Fifth Ice Age Is On the Way” (Los Angeles Times)

1913: March 23, “How and Why Earth Will End: Scientists Believe Our Universe Will Some Day Plunge Into Sun” (Washington Post, Chicago Tribune)

1920: September 21, “Mac Millian Kills New Ice Age Theory: Earth May Be Entering Its Golden Years (Syracuse Herald)

1923: “Scientists Says Arctic Ice Will Wipe Out Canada” (Chicago Tribune)

1924: September 18, “Mac Millian Reports Signs of New Ice Age” (New York Times)

1926: August 15, “THE sun is sick [say international scientists], and the world is about to enter . . . a new glacier period” (The Zanesville Times Signal – Ohio)

1933: 27 March, “America in Longest Warm Spell Since 1776; Temperature Line Records a 25-Year Rise” (New York Times)

1934: 27 September, “Predicts New Ice Age For America: Savant Says It Will Come in 10,000 Years (International News Service, Herald-Times, PA)

1939: “[The] weather men have no doubt the world at least for the time being is growing warmer” (TIME)

1952: August 10, “Our Changing Climate . . . the world has been getting warmer in the last half century” (New York Times)

1954: “Climate – the Heat May be Off . . . Despite all you may have read, heard or imagined, it’s been growing cooler – not warmer since the Thirties” (Fortune) 

1957: April 9, “Control of Temperature Said Vital” (Associated Press, Union-Bulletin)

1958: August 8, “Ice Age Return Is Seen In U.S.” (Portland Oregonian Editor, The Salisbury Times)

1958: September, “The Coming Ice Age” (Harper’s)

1959: February 15, “A Warmer Earth Evident At Poles” (New York Times)

1961: March 9, “Don’t Say We Didn’t Give You Fair Warning: The Ice Age Cometh” (The Ada Weekly News)*

1962: April 13, “Arctic Deals Blow to Ice Age Theories” (New York Times news service)

1969: February 20, “Expert Says Arctic Ocean Will Soon Be Open Sea” (New York Times)

1970: April 22, “Colder Winters Held Dawn of New Ice Age” (Washington Post) 

1971: July 9, “U.S. Scientists See New Ice Age Coming” (Washington Post)

1973: April 14, “The Earth Is Cooling, Return of Ice Age Is Feared” (Iowa City Press Citizen) 

1974: “It [the New Ice Age] is the root cause of a lot of that unpleasant weather around the world and they warn that it carries the potential for human disasters of unprecedented magnitude” (Fortune) 

1974: June 24, “Another Ice Age?” (TIME)

1975: “The Ice Age Cometh” (Science News)

1975: “[T]he world’s climatologists agreed . . . Once the freeze starts, it will be too late” (Douglas Colligan, Science Digest)

1975: April 28, “The Cooling World . . . The drop in food output could begin . . . soon” (Newsweek)  

1975: May 21, “Scientists Ponder Why World’s Climate is Changing: A Major Cooling Widely Considered to Be Inevitable” (New York Times)

1975: June, “The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of death . . .” (Nigel Calder, International Wildlife Journal)

1981: March 31, “Long-range forecast: snow, ice for 114,000 years . . . Earth’s current warm period ending . . . new ice age could last 114,000 years say scientists” (AP)  

1981: August 24, “Scientists predict melting icecaps next century . . . With a slow growth of fossil fuel use temperatures would go up about 4.5 degrees F . . . with a rapid increase . . . 5 to 8 degrees” (U.P.)  

1981: November 25, “Warming of World can involve many gases” (UPI) 

1982: “‘Volcano dust may cool Earth 2 years’ . . . Dust from Mexican volcano will produce a cooling effect around the Earth for the next two years, the National Oceanic Administration estimates” (AP) 

1983: October 22, “The good news is Canadian winters may moderate . . . A predicted warming . . . will moderate Canada’s bitter waters. Prince Edward Island will likely be cut in half” (CP) 

1990: April 16, “Global Warming: Pollutants turn Earth into ecological hothouse” (Syracuse Herald-Journal)

1994: January 31, “The Ice Age Cometh?”  (TIME)

2000: April-May, “How to Prevent a Meltdown: Answers to global warming are in the wind” (TIME) 

2004: December 26, “Undeniable Global Warming” (Washington Post)

2005: December 27, “Past Hot Times Hold Few Reasons to Relax About New Warming” (New York Times)

2006: January 29, “Debate on Climate Shifts to Issue of Irreparable Change: Some Experts on Global Warming Foresee ‘Tipping Point’ When It Is Too Late To Act” (Washington Post)

2006: July 24, “Global Warming Signed, Sealed, and Delivered Scientists Agree: The Earth . . . warming, and human activities are the principal cause” (Los Angeles Times)  

2006, July, “Mostly cooler and wetter than normal this July in Alaska” (Alaska Monthly Summary)

2006: December, “Global Cooling Plan: It’s now clear that climate change threatens to warm the planet but to ice the world economy” (Newsweek: Special Edition)  

2007: February 10, “From Bad to Worse: Earth’s Warming to Accelerate” (Science News)  

2007: April 9, “Global Warming: What Now? Our feverish planet badly needs a cure” (TIME)

2007: May 28, “The Brooding Omnipresence of Global Warming” (Harper’s) 

2007: August 6, “A warmer world creates new iceberg ecology . . . But now marine biologists have a more positive take on the . . . icebergs that have broken free” (TIME)

2008: January 14, “Snow Storm Hits New England: First Major Snow Drops Heavy Snow; Emergencies Declared, Hundreds of Schools Closed” (CBS/AP)

2008: February 11, “China On Ice . . . Blizzards have cost the economy at least 3 billion . . . Snow Crash. Storms have caused widespread damage and disruption throughout the country” (TIME)

* Note: This satirical 1961 piece pokes fun at Harper’s “New Ice Age” story (1960).