Climate Change Hysteria and the Global Warming / Global Cooling Yo-Yo

Some of the most highly regarded news publications have been warning us about disastrous global climate change for more than 100 years. The problem, unfortunately for the media, is they can't seem to decide exactly what's going to happen to the weather. Sometimes the media warns that we're heading into an ice age, while other times we're on the cusp of melting all the glaciers and flooding everything. It's a yo-yo!

And it's cyclical. From roughly 1895-1930, the impending disaster was global cooling. That's right... global cooling. In fact, some scientists were so panicked they feared that North America, as far south as the Great Lakes, would be buried under glaciers! Of course, that hysteria didn't last too long, and starting in 1930 or so, and lasting until 1960, the biggest threat to our safety, food, and indeed the entire planet, was global warming. Ah... good old global warming. We're familiar with that. Unfortunately, at least for the media, anyway, that scare only lasted until around 1960, or so, although some publications kept pushing until as late as 1969. But sometime around the mid 1950s, a new trend popped onto the scene. Except, it wasn't exactly a "new" trend at all. It was just the same-old, rehashed threat of global cooling! Fortunately, at least for Al Gore, the whole global cooling thing kind of... erm... cooled off... if you'll excuse the expression. That's right, sometime around 1980 or so we were well on our way to our latest disaster-in-the-making... global warming 2.0!

But let's talk about the freezing times ahead, shall we? Because admit it, a nice cool day has to feel good after all this global warming we've been experiencing... right? So... let's look at a little history, taken from media quotes:

February 24, 1895: The New York Times warns us that "Geologists Think the World May Be Frozen Up Again." The article debated whether "recent and long-continued observations do not point to the advent of a second glacial period." They decided that the signs did indeed point to a second glacial period. The worry seemed to be how severe Scandinavia's climate was, combined with advancing northern glaciers.