Big Sky Cairn

Each of the following quotes is taken from a popular news source. Some were published in the decade between 1970 and 1979, while others are more contemporary ranging from 2000 to present. I’ll post a list of quotes each day this week, and next weekend I’ll post the answers.

See if you can identify which decade gave birth to these arguments:

____ “There are ominous signs that the earth’s weather patters have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production - with serious political implications for just about every nation on earth.”

____ “If the frequency of mention in newspaper headlines is a guide to popular concern with a given subject, then climate and weather must rate highly on any scale.”

____ “Despite the various relationships of sunspot cycles (11-year cycles) to climatic features, no one, including Dr. Hurd C. Willett, professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and perhaps the leading authority on sunspots and weather, has been able to demonstrate conclusively what cause-effect might be involved.”

____ “Measurements since the late 1800s show that the volume of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by about 15 per cent, probably as a result of increased burning of fuels.”

____ “Such probabilities are well within the range that requires that even the costliest precautions be taken if we value life and our civilization.”

____ “How much money is half the world’s population worth, or large geographic areas of civilization? This problem is a moral one and science is not capable of providing an answer.”

____ “As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval.”

____ “The collision of air masses of widely differing temperatures and humidity can create violent storms - the Midwest’s recent rash of disastrous tornadoes, for example.”

____ “The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only ten years from now.”

Wouldn’t it make more sense to ask who the quotes came from? Or rather, what political bent they had? I’d wager that I said some shit in the 70’s that was off base, and I’d guarantee that you’ve written some crap in the new century. So, without knowing who said what, or that you just made this out of context crap right up, what can possibly be the point of your “quiz”? I’d bet I can find quotes from the 1600s that could be mixed in with your potpourri of ridiculousness.

What a tool.

If the point were to ascertain the validity of the statements, then your request for context would be justified. But the idea is solely to compare the rhetorical devices of the 1970s and the 2000s - to determine if they are distinguishable.

My interest in this discussion has been - and continues to be - the way the argument is waged.

[…] with baited breath to learn the sources and origins of the Name The Decade trivia quotes from last Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and […]