In 1911, the New York Times and the head chemist at the Department of Agriculture predicted that the whole earth would freeze, we would run out of coal and wood, and wind power would keep us warm and fed.
“ZERO AT THE EQUATOR SOME DAY, SAYS DR H. W. WILEY”
“Dr. H. W. Wiley, Head Chemist of the Agricultural Department, Washington.”
“Geologists have for many years admitted that the earth Is cooling”
“the earth was cooling so unmistakably that freezing was to be our lot”
“Coal and wood will disappear from the earth. Coal already is dwindling alarmingly, and the most ambitious efforts of the foresters will not forestall the final obliteration of the forests. Electricity is manifestly the sole dependence of the future. In the Northwest several years age the cold was so intense and the fuel fam-ine so prolonged that the farmers there kept themselves alive by burning their boundary fences and their outhouses. The winds a- ere frightful In their temperature and destructive force. Why -should they not have been utilized to keep those homes comfortable. “By means of a simple _windmill, power could be produced whisk would keep the homes of the far Northwest at a uniform’ temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit, even In the deadliest cold weather.”
– New York Times January 1, 1911
