15 August 2018

Human-induced global warning. 1912.

This article’s authenticity is supported by the fact it can be found in the digital archives of the National Library of New Zealand.

Further attesting to its authenticity (and perhaps its role as a bit of stock news used to fill space) is that an identical story had appeared in an Australian newspaper a month prior, in the 17 July 1912, issue of The Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal, as found in the digital archives of the National Library of Australia.

An even deeper dive reveals that the text of this news item has its origins in the March 1912 issue of Popular Mechanics, where it appeared as a caption in an article titled “Remarkable Weather of 1911: The Effect of the Combustion of Coal on the Climate — What Scientists Predict for the Future”:
More information at Snopes.

3 comments:

  1. I reiterate my argument I present in a previous thread: The problem isn't the inert substance "coal". It's the fact that people use it. Even then a moderate burning of it isn't a big problem. The critically damaging factor that's been injected is the rapid rise in the earth's human population over the last 75 years. 1.8 billion then good.7.3 billion now, not so good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Understood. And from that viewpoint the suggested remedy would be what? Population control requires education, medical and social support resources, and time.

      Hans Rosling addresses this question in the last 7-8 minutes of this video -

      https://boingboing.net/2018/06/27/watch-this-cutting-edge-presen.html

      I'll post and hopefully discuss the video eventually, but you might want to peek at that part of it.

      Delete
  2. The concept of greenhouse gases was discovered a couple decades before that it is amazing how long it takes for simple scientific principles to be grasped by the public at large.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...