Dear Tom,
"Global warming" must be a recent phrase because I don't recall hearing it
in the 1970s when I was in college. When did it first get started?
Jeremy Johnson
Dear Jeremy,
Global warming as a distinct phrase has been around for 34 years; it first
appeared in 1975 -- and it has a Chicago connection.
Dr. Wallace Broecker, the world's premier authority on abrupt global climate
change and a long-time researcher at Columbia University in New York, is a
native of Oak Park. We asked Broecker if he originated the term and his
humble response was, "I guess I did, but it was inadvertent."
In 1975, worldwide temperatures had been falling for 20 years (Chicago's
too) and the concern was that a new ice age was imminent. Broecker dismissed
that concern and, in 1975, published a paper titled, "Climate Change: Are We
on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?" The phrase caught on.
"Global warming" must be a recent phrase because I don't recall hearing it
in the 1970s when I was in college. When did it first get started?
Jeremy Johnson
Dear Jeremy,
Global warming as a distinct phrase has been around for 34 years; it first
appeared in 1975 -- and it has a Chicago connection.
Dr. Wallace Broecker, the world's premier authority on abrupt global climate
change and a long-time researcher at Columbia University in New York, is a
native of Oak Park. We asked Broecker if he originated the term and his
humble response was, "I guess I did, but it was inadvertent."
In 1975, worldwide temperatures had been falling for 20 years (Chicago's
too) and the concern was that a new ice age was imminent. Broecker dismissed
that concern and, in 1975, published a paper titled, "Climate Change: Are We
on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?" The phrase caught on.
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