An inconvenient, but not new, truth

Bell Labs: Is there anything those guys didn't figure out? Transistors, the wave nature of matter, talking pictures, modern cryptography, Unix, cosmic background radiation...and global warming.

That's right. In 1958 -- when Al Gore was 10 -- Bell Labs scientists participated in the making of a short Frank Capra-directed film called "Unchained Goddess" for the Bell Telephone Hour, a variety show that ran on TV and radio and at the movies. In it, Bell scientists explained that no one was sure yet how great humankind's impact on the planet would be, but if it was greater than a certain amount, the environmental consequences would be...well, very much as scientists have predicted and documented since.

YouTube, naturally, has a clip from the short film. Many readers may end up with flashbacks to grade-school filmstrips, as many Bell Telephone Hour shorts (including this one) later made the rounds of the school system.