Sunday, May 13, 2012

More Proof the 1970s Weren't About Global Cooling

As you know, global cooling wasn't the dominant climate theme of the 1970s. Here's more proof, from 1973's Soylent Green (set in the year 2020):





(To be fair, the movie did imagine that New York City's population in 2020 was 40 million, which looks unlikely. And people aren't being made into crackers. That we know of.)

3 comments:

dave said...

Hey, that's based on Make Room! Make Room! (1966) by Harry Harrison, with the droughts, power blackouts and as I recall, the heatwaves. But nothing about crackers - though a plotline involving soylent steaks.

dave said...

Correct self, the book features red and brown crackers, oatmeal, and fishy substance from undersea collection of plankton. Of course no people being made into crackers, which the film added when it dumped most of the plot of the book.

From skimming the book, no mention of global warming, so that's a good find in the film clip. The book opens with a sweltering August heatwave in New York, which is broken by torrential rain, then ends at the New Year with fine cold snow. Maybe there's some mention of climate change, but looks as though that was something modified in the film.

Stu said...

What a coincidence, I just got home from watching this at the cinema! (Part of a series of 70's films about the future). That scene made me think of the 70's cooling myth right away.