Time and Global Warming I

Six years of drought in Africa. Killer floods in Japan. Crop failures in Canada and Russia.

Average temperatures out of whack. Dramatic changes in polar ice caps. Animals populations threatened with extinction. Top scientists warning of a coming global catastrophe. Our whole fragile blue planet in certain peril because of the junk being pumped into the atmosphere by evil humans.

These horrors sound like they were ripped from the pages of "Be Worried. Be Very Worried," the special report on global warming served up last week by Time magazine. Good guess, but not quite.

The above list comes from Time, all right. But it's the issue of June 24, 1974 -- the one that included a big article on the new ice age that "a growing number of scientists" were sure was already happening and would soon have serious if not devastating global consequences. Read on.