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The Audio Long Read

Sixty years of climate change warnings: the signs that were missed (and ignored) – podcast

The Audio Long Read

The Guardian

Society & Culture

4.32.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The effects of ‘weird weather’ were already being felt in the 1960s, but scientists linking fossil fuels with climate change were dismissed as prophets of doom. By Alice Bell. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the Guardian.

0:10.2

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0:14.6

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0:28.6

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0:33.6

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0:39.5

with peloton. This message was paid for by peloton.

0:47.8

Welcome to the Guardian Long Read, showcasing the best long-form journalism covering culture,

0:52.7

politics and new thinking. For the text version of this and all our long reads, go to thegardian.com

0:58.0

for its last long read. Sixty years of climate change warnings, the signs that were missed and ignored.

1:07.5

The effects of weird weather were already being felt in the 1960s, but scientists linking fossil

1:13.6

fuels with climate change were dismissed as profits of doom by Alice Bell, read by Emma Powell and

1:22.5

produced by Esther Apocou-Geni. In August 1974, the CIA produced a study on climatological research

1:32.4

as it pertains to intelligence problems. The diagnosis was dramatic. It warned of the

1:38.6

emergence of a new era of weird weather, leading to political unrest and mass migration, which in turn

1:45.6

would cause more unrest. The new era the agency imagined wasn't necessarily one of hotter temperatures.

1:53.3

The CIA had heard from scientists warning of global cooling as well as warming,

1:58.7

but the direction in which the thermometer was travelling wasn't their immediate concern.

2:03.3

It was the political impact. They knew that the so-called little ice age, a series of cold

2:09.8

snaps between roughly 1350 and 1850, had brought not only drought and famine, but also war,

2:17.9

and so could these new climatic changes. The climate change began in 1960. The reports first page

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