One of the things that I most enjoy about researching with old periodicals are those occasions when I stumble upon some otherwise long-forgotten article that tells you as much about the present as the past. I found one yesterday afternoon while thumbing through regional newspapers at the Russian State Library branch located in Khimki. The article appeared on the front page of the 15 March 1964 issue of Stalingradskaia pravda [Stalingrad Pravda] under the title “Климат и его современные изменения.” (or, “The Climate and Its Contemporary Changes.”)

As far as the current public debate on global warming is concerned, I am a devout agnostic.
Still, I couldn’t help but smile as I read through the Khrushchev-era piece. Here’s a full (if hastily composed) translation of the article:

“The Climate and Its Contemporary Changes”

Leningrad, 14 March 1964. TASS.

After five days of work in the Central Geophysical Observatory named for A. I. Voikov, a symposium on “Global Atmospheric Processes” has concluded. Participating in the symposium were leading climatologists, meteorologists, and aerologists from Moscow, Leningrad, Alma-Ata, Tashkent, Tblisi, Rostov-on-Don, and other cities of the USSR. A report from E. S. Rubenshtein (Doctor of Geography) on current climate change attracted much interest.

Currently, the main geophysical observatory is displaying maps which depict temperature changes in various regions around the globe. The maps utilize the results of analytical data compiled over the course of the last two centuries. They clearly reveal temperature changes beginning in the 1920s and 1930s of the current century.

It appears that the greatest level of warming has occurred in the Arctic. However climactic change has also been observed in the temperate latitudes and the tropics. Scientists had theorized that in the early 1940s the warming process had ended and cooling began. The most recent data, however, do not support this theory. It appears that while cooling may be taking place in some regions, warming is continuing in others.

While the majority of researchers believe that climate change is the result of variations in solar activity, a few link the warming of the climate to increased emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere brought about by human activity such as the growth of industry.

The temperature changes have lead to a number of interesting developments. In regions of Eurasia located between the forest-tundra to the far north, for example, climate changes over the last forty to fifty years have resulted in the migration of no fewer than forty types of birds and mammals. Elk, which in the 1920s were practically never encountered north of the forest-tundra are now common there and range as far as the coast of the North Sea.

Having demonstrated the link between the sun, atmosphere, and climate, scientists are now attempting to clarify the specific characteristic of these disturbance. In order to identify the tendencies of future climate changes, it is particularly important for scientists to develop long-term weather forecasts as well as means of more accurately measuring artificial climate change.

At the concluding session of the symposium Professor M. I. Budyko (Lenin Prize laureate) and Doctor of Physical-Mathematical Science L. P. Rakipov delivered a report on the impact of climate change on snow and ice sheets.