This climate change warning from 110 years ago just went viral again and it’s never going to get old

For reasons that are about to become blindingly obviously, this climate change warning from a newspaper 110 years ago has just gone viral.

It’s not the first time it’s happened and it won’t be the last, unfortunately.

This was printed 110 years ago today,’ said Redditor PhilipLiptonSchrute.

And just in case that’s tricky to read …

Science Notes and News

COAL CONSUMPTION AFFECTING CLIMATE

The furnaces of the world are now burning about 2,000,000,000 tons of coal a year.

When this is burned, uniting with oxygen, it adds about 7,000,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere yearly.

This tends to make the air a more effective blanket for the earth and to raise its temperature.

The effect may be considerable in just a few centuries.

It’s from a New Zealand paper called the Rodney & Otamatea Times and you can read a deep dive all about it over here.

And here are just a few of the things people were saying about it.

‘That person said “the effect may be considerable in a few centuries”, well it has only been one century so egg on your face, pal!!!! Makes L sign on forehead.’
DorkusDeluxus

‘Its almost like we’ve known all along; and instead of stopping the train we’re on, we keep throwing more coal in the fire.’
That75252Expensive

‘Reading some of these old newspaper entries and other texts from ~100 years ago I noticed and really appreciated how straight to the point they all are.

‘There’s no long introduction, there’s no playing with fancy vocabulary, it’s just a clear, concise delivery of the facts. A similar article today would’ve taken several pages of writing.’
Mishapopkin

‘Mildly interesting fact, the car was seen as an environmentally friendly alternative to horses in cities. The manure was a health risk, the disposal of dead horses became a problem and the horseshoes were causing extreme noise pollution.’
SkinnyObelix

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Source Reddit u/PhilipLiptonSchrute