“Gaffers who claim that winters were harder when they were boys are quite right—except that the change is too small to be detected except by instruments and statistics in the hands of professional meteorologists. Weather men have no doubt that the world at least for the time being is growing warmer.”

– “Warmer World“, Time Magazine, January 2, 1939

Yes, that’s with a 1, 9, 3 and another 9. The suspicions of weather “men” of the time were correct. The world was warming, and it would eventually continue to do so.

This article came before the upward trend in global temperatures actually slowed for two decades, thanks to a combination of air pollution, natural variability and land use change. Concern about the warming climate waned somewhat, but scientists continued to study the physical impact of adding carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. By the late 1970s, the consensus among scientists studying the climate was that a continued increase in atmospheric CO2 levels will continue to warm the planet.