I grew up in the 70's. My oldest brother was in college at the time and car free. He was probably the strongest influence that led me to bike commuting. He now lives in Hawaii.

I also remember those predictions about the coming ice age. It does cast some doubt on the accuracy of the current claims of global warming. Here's an article called "Climate Change: Chilling Possibilities" that was in Science News from 1975. I found a link to it a climate change skeptic's website. Actually he just showed a graph and didn't include any text.

It's a very interesting read and some of it does contradict what you hear today. Some of it doesn't though. They do talk about the impact of human activity on climate. They knew at the time that human CO2 production was warming the atmosphere. Some questioned whether or not that would offset the natural cycle some thought was leading us to another ice age.

You may find plenty in that article to support your current view. However, it doesn't seem like there was quite the consensus then that there is now. From the article:

"Climatology, however, is still an infant science, and its practitioners have faced their sudden popularity with the blinking uncertainty of squirrels roused from hibernation: Some have dashed forward with instant pronouncements while others have shyly retired behind the complexities of their arcane studies, refusing even to speculate about what changes may lie ahead or what action could be taken to confront them.To gain a perspective on these divergent views, SCIENCE NEWS interviewed C. C. Wallen, chief of the Special Environmental Applications Division, World Meteorological Organization, at the wmo headquarters in Geneva. The cooling trend observed since 1940 is real enough, he says, but not enough is known about the underlying causes to justify any sort of extrapolation."

Wallen goes on to say that he expects the cooling trend to continue buy my take on this is that many were reluctant to make long term predictions. Contrast that couched language with what is being said today:

US National Academy of Sciences: "...there is now strong evidence that significant global warming is occurring... It is likely that most of the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human activities... The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action." This is in a joint statement with the Academies of Science from Brazil, France, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom.

In the 70's the US National Academy of science:

…we do not have a good quantitative understanding of our climate machine and what determines its course. Without the fundamental understanding, it does not seem possible to predict climate…


If you're interested in another perspective on the 1970's ice age prediction, here's a link: http://www.skepticalscience.com/ice-...termediate.htm

Basically they say that while there were peer reviewed papers discussing a new ice age back then, there were actually more peer reviewed papers talking about warming.