As a "denier" of the concept of man made global warming, I thoroughly enjoyed this George Will column which included the following reminder of the good old days of global cooling.

In the 1970s, "a major cooling of the planet" was "widely considered inevitable" because it was "well-established" that the Northern Hemisphere's climate "has been getting cooler since about 1950" (New York Times, May 21, 1975).

Although some disputed that the "cooling trend" could result in "a return to another ice age" (the Times, Sept. 14, 1975), others anticipated "a full-blown 10,000-year ice age" involving "extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation" (Science News, March 1, 1975; and Science magazine, Dec. 10, 1976, respectively).

The "continued rapid cooling of the Earth" (Global Ecology, 1971) meant that "a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery" (International Wildlife, July 1975).

"The world's climatologists are agreed" that we must "prepare for the next ice age" (Science Digest, February 1973). Because of "ominous signs" that "the Earth's climate seems to be cooling down," meteorologists were "almost unanimous" that "the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century," perhaps triggering catastrophic famines (Newsweek cover story, "The Cooling World," April 28, 1975).

Armadillos were fleeing south from Nebraska, heat-seeking snails were retreating from central European forests, the North Atlantic was "cooling down about as fast as an ocean can cool," glaciers had "begun to advance" and "growing seasons in England and Scandinavia are getting shorter" (Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 27, 1974).

I couldn't help but see the similarity in these comments from the 70's with the global warming hysteria of the 2000's. George Will goes on to predict that the global warming hysteria will go the way of our good friend global cooling. He then points out that other than the global warming enthusiasts, the concern over global warming has declined.

Because of today's economy, another law – call it the Law of Clarifying Calamities – is being (redundantly) confirmed. On graphs tracking public opinion, two lines are moving in tandem and inversely: The sharply rising line charts public concern about the economy; the plunging line follows concern about the environment. A recent Pew Research Center poll asked which of 20 issues should be the government's top priorities. Climate change ranked 20th.

Does this mean global warming is on the way out and that the next coming financial depression is our new calamity du jour? What's next? A comet headed toward the Earth? Nanobots? You can bet there will be something.