i expected that the first peer-reviewed paper on global warming would be an easily googleable thing, but it doesn't seem like anybody's prioritized making that declaration. some things hit us paradigmatically, others are slow to take root; our understanding of global warming has been slow and incremental, rather than sudden and immediate.

in the end, people aren't going to be looking back at actual bad science in relation to covid-19. i haven't seen a lot of specious articles or reports from actual scientists; my criticism has been towards governments, and towards media. i've often reacted to bad information produced by governments and media (and, to an extent, they're the same thing) by directing readers to pre-print papers. so, let's not confuse the comparison even more.

with that in mind, it is perhaps worth noting how badly the media got it in the 70s.

https://www.newsweek.com/climate-change-prediction-perils-111927

governments, on the other hand, seem to have mostly written it off as pie-in-the-sky nonsense.

so, if you were standing in 1970 and you were waving your copy of newsweek and believing the reports from the white house (do you kids know who was president in 1970? he's a lot like the guy we have now, actually.) at face value, you'd have been pretty much exactly wrong.

and, what would the white knights have said?

you need to wait.

but, if you want a comparison, there it is.