Protest over too much fuss about pollution – archive, 26 August 1970

26 August 1970: Government agency questions whether greenhouse' effect from the burning of fossil fuels will raise the Earth's temperature

Too much fuss is being made about the fashionable word pollution," says the government agency which has been keeping an eye on it since 1863. The Chief Alkali Inspector, Mr FE Ireland, who published his annual report yesterday, says: We must beware the obvious danger that emotions could be roused to the point of overriding common sense. This is not a problem to be tackled in a spirit of panic and those prophets of doom who predict the more bizarre kind of human catastrophe and paint rather self-righteous pictures of scientists as irresponsible villains exploiting humanity to the point of disaster could well be doing their (and our) cause a great disservice."

Related: Sixty years of climate change warnings: the signs that were missed (and ignored)