# That '70s Ice Age **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 23, 2005, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-70s-ice-age/322988 "2005-09-23T01:03:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-70s-ice-age/322988/1 "2005-09-23T01:03:28Z")
In the debate on global warming, skeptics often try to undermine the credibility of science with comments like this (from another forum): > [@](#): > > Whatever happened to the global cooling of the 70’s? I remember the news was all about the harsh winters were going to get more so. We were heading to another ice age. So how did we go from ice age to over heating? My question is, who exactly was saying this? To what extent were climatologists convinced that this was a likely threat? Was it over-hyped in the media? How did the degree of scientific certainty compare to that which is currently applied to global warming? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-70s-ice-age/322988/2 "2005-09-23T02:18:00Z")
The leading proponent of the hypothesis that we were moving into another ice age was [Dr. Stephen Schneider](http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/Biography/BioFrameset.html?http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/Biography/Biography.html), at the time of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, Colorado, USA, but now at Stanford. He wrote many of the significant books promoting the notion. He is now a proponent of the problems with the greenhouse effect. [This site](http://www.john-daly.com/schneidr.htm), hardly favorable to Dr. Schneider, does have a good précis of his cooling work: > [@](#): > > During the Ice Age Scare of the 1970s, Schneider was one of it’s foremost advocates. He published a book titled “The Genesis Strategy” at this time, warning of the coming glaciation, and wrote glowing a testimonial on the back cover of a popular `Ice Age’ book of the time - (Ponte, Lowell. “The Cooling”, Prentice Hall, N.J., USA, 1976), in which the author claimed that the climatic cooling from 1940 to the 1970s was but the precursor to the main event - the coming Ice Age. > > Schneider was one of the first in the scientific community to warn of the impending Ice Age with this paper - > > Schneider S. & Rasool S., “Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Aerosols - Effects of Large Increases on Global Climate”, Science, vol.173, 9 July 1971, p.138-141 Other scientists also jumped on the bandwagon, including John Gribbin, a ferociously fast writer who never met a fad topic he didn’t pump out a book about. Even at the time, as I recall, the notion was treated as somewhat far fetched, but it was given seriously attention because Schneider was a serious working scientist. And even when serious scientists are wrong, you have to at least listen carefully to what they have to say. Because you never know. ---
**Author:** ![Earthworm\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f07891/32.png) [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-70s-ice-age/322988/3 "2005-09-23T02:48:44Z")
The idea is still out there. The gist is: The addition of fresh-water to the oceans could disrupt super-salty ‘chimneys’ of cold water, which could destroy some delicate ocean currents. The net result being that warmer water from the tropics doesn’t circulate as much, leading to colder climates, harsher winters, glaciers, etc. in non-tropical lattitudes. A quick [link](http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=159) which probably does a much better job of describing what I’m talking about, even if it doesn’t consider it too serious at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-70s-ice-age/322988/4 "2005-09-25T20:47:05Z")
Thanks for the responses. Any other input to help flesh out answers to my questions? ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-70s-ice-age/322988/5 "2005-09-26T14:13:14Z")
Rasool and Schneider’s 1971 paper is put into context with the other research of the time in Spencer Weart’s [The Discovery of Global Warming](http://www.aip.org/history/climate/index.html), particularly in [this section](http://www.aip.org/history/climate/aerosol.htm#s2). He also discusses some of the other contemporary predictions of imminent ice ages in [this section](http://www.aip.org/history/climate/Public.htm#S3) on media coverage and public opinion about climate change in the early 1970s. The site - or the published book version - is generally recommended as an account of how the controversies of the past led to the current broad scientific consensus.