Thread by @ddimick

1/x Bringing receipts that @NatGeoMag has been talking about #climate change for not as long as Arrhenius but for at least decades. Those writers asserting that “no one was talking about climate change until recently” per @JacquelynGill, could benefit from some history…to wit

2/x This Nov. 1976 @natgeo article “What’s Happening to Our Climate?” included discussion of #paleoclimatology…ice core records

3/x In Oct. 1990 this piece asked “Is Our World Warming?” and included Mauna Loa #CO2 records and greenhouse effect illustrations w/ this: “Humans have disrupted the natural carbon cycle by burning fossil fuels for energy and by clearing forests..”

4/x In May 1998 the @natgeo cover story by @washingtonpost writer Kurt Suplee was “Unlocking the Climate Puzzle.” Editing by @kurtmutchler Photos by @joannapinneo

5/x In Feb. 2004 “The Case of the Missing Carbon” would win science writer Tim Appenzeller the 2005 Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism. My story proposal was based on a 2000 @ScienceMagazine review of the global carbon cycle science.sciencemag.org/content/290/54…

6/x In Sept. 2004 @NatGeoMag devoted 74 pages in three articles on the physical science of climate change, rising ecological impacts, and paleoclimatology - ice cores, seashells, tree rings, proxy records etal and what this tells us about climate history. This was 17 years ago.

7/x In June of 2007 we devoted two articles to the changing Arctic: loss of ice caps, melting of continental glaciers, and impacts on Arctic ecology as the region thaws. This project launched James Balog’s Extreme Ice Survey @extremeice documented in the film @chasingice

8/x In Oct. of 2007 we had a cover piece on energy balance of biofuels, and @billmckibben wrote this explainer on the “Carbon’s New Math.” The noted Socolow/Pacala @PrincetonEnviro Stabilization Wedges showed how we could decarbonize the economy. Thanks Art Dir. @charlesmblow

9/x In Feb. 2008 @rkunzig explored ”Drying of the West,” on what tree rings can tell us about the dry future ahead. “The American West was won by water management. What happens when there’s no water left to manage?” The past was much drier than now. What next? Sound familiar?

10/x In May of 2009 this map of disappearing Arctic ice cap detailed the changing region as the earth heats up. “Twilight of the Arctic Ice”

11/x This Sept. 2013 cover story on “Rising Seas: How They Are Changing Our Coastlines” contemplated how high the seas would rise if all the ice on earth were to melt. You can see how just how high here:

12/x In Nov. of 2015 @natgeomag devoted the issue fixing climate. A tall order, but not only is it important to talk about what is happening but how we can change trajectory. Change can happen if people, policymakers, and corporations have the will to #decarbonize.

13/ x Other projects with climate angles during this time: emerging water scarcity (2010,) implications of world population (2011,) the future of food in a changing climate (2014-16.) Big stories also in 2014 on role and fate of coal. what snowpack loss means for the West.

14/x I’ve left for other things like teaching science journalists and personal photography projects but the @natgeo work goes on. @NatGeoMag has been out there on the #climate beat for longer than many writers writing on climate have been alive. FWIW -30- @kaityarnall @Mzack0

fix…”on the role and fate of coal, and what snowpack loss means for the West…(oh, for an edit button)