On May 17 Business and Media Institute writer R. Warren Anderson published an article titled "Fire and Ice." It chronicles 110 years of print media reports on four different periods of climate change.

Much has been written by The New York Times. On Feb. 24, 1895, they wrote, "Geologists Think the World May Be Frozen Up Again." On Feb. 15, 1959, it was, "Arctic Findings in Particular Support Theory of Rising Global Temperatures." Back to cooling in May 1975, with, "A Major Cooling Widely Considered to Be Inevitable." Back to warming on May 20, 2005, with "Warming is Blamed for Antarctica's Weight Gain."

Anderson describes forecasts of mass food shortages and changing glaciers. On April 28, 1975, Newsweek wrote, "The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now," from climate cooling. On Aug. 8, 2005, they wrote, "Livestock are dying. Crops are withering," from global warming. In 1954, U.S. News and World Report wrote, "Glaciers are receding, deserts growing."

To get support for their theories, one scientist, Stephen Schneider, explained in Discover in October 1989, the need to get "loads of media coverage" to "capture the public's imagination" with "scary scenarios" and "little mention of any doubts we might have."

Perhaps climate change is just cyclical.

Sheila Thompson

Salt Lake City