When the prophecies became too true, everyone shook their heads in dismay.
It is undeniable that our lives will be a lot easier if we can predict the future with some accuracy. That’s why economic forecasters are always respected and fortune-tellers are always alive. Even “rainy weather is a matter of heaven” is also predicted by people with the profession of weather forecasting.
Called the future, nothing is fixed, so it is normal to predict it. But few prophecies can be as accurate as this New Zealand newspaper . And you know what, that newspaper dates back to 1912 – 106 years ago.
Specifically, on August 14, 1912, a newspaper with a rather long name ” Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette” of New Zealand printed a bulletin with a scientific predictive nature. Briefly described, the bulletin warns that the Earth’s atmosphere is changing, as the economy is too focused on fossil fuels.
“Coal affects the climate” – that’s the headline of the news.
Short bulletin forecasting the situation of the Earth’s climate. (Photo courtesy of the National Gallery of New Zealand).
“The world’s furnaces are consuming 2 billion tons of coal every year. When burned, it sucks in oxygen and releases another 7 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere” – quoted in the news.
“This process will cause the atmosphere to become more and more like a blanket over the Earth, increasing the temperature. The effect is already happening, and the consequences will be coming over the next century.”
That’s all explained in the news. Very brief, but extremely accurate about the situation happening with Earth’s climate today.
In fact, the newspaper of the country of Kiwi birds is not the first place to publish this forecast. In July 1912, the Australian newspaper Braidwood Dispatch published a similar story. Before that, in March 1912, Popular Mechanic was probably the first place to make this prediction.
Rate of increase in temperature and CO2 density in the air.
If we go further, the first reports of climate change effects due to coal are already available. As in 1850, the New York Times ran a report on coal’s effect on the climate, but it didn’t get much support.
And sadly, all the predictions of people at that time came true.
In 2016, the whole world consumed more than 5.3 billion tons of coal. And Earth’s atmosphere today contains a terrible concentration of CO 2 : over 411 parts per million – the highest in the past 800,000 years.
Earth’s atmosphere today contains a terrible concentration of CO 2 .
High rates of air pollution also strike health, killing many human lives at an alarming rate. Not to mention that rising temperatures easily cause wildfires, cause sea levels to rise, and destroy ecosystems.
Currently, the proportion of coal production and use is gradually decreasing in developed countries, but the opposite trend is happening in developing countries. There are still billions of tons of coal being burned, and the consequences are still extremely dire.