Climate Change 1958: The Bell Telephone Science Hour

Frank Capra, Bell Telephone Science Hour

Bell Telephone Science Hour produced this video in 1958, explaining how the production of CO2 from factories and automobiles is causing the atmosphere to warm, melting the polar ice caps, and causing the sea level to rise.

Click to View

Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials.

Teachers should embed this video in a presentation to create conversation about the history of atmospheric science and climate change. Today we have data regarding the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, changes in air temperature, sea level rise, and ice cap melting that confirms the comments made by the scientist in the 1958 video.
This video, produced during the International Geophysical Year in 1958, focuses on how increasing atmospheric CO2 through industrial processes will absorb more heat, raise atmospheric temperatures, and likely cause melting of the polar ice caps, resulting in sea level rise. Comments from expert scientist: The short movie clip gives a feel of the important phenomena of Global Warming and climate change being perceived in 1958.
The video demonstrates that the scientific community has understood for decades that increases in gases that trap heat can impact global temperatures and lead to "catastrophic changes in our environment." This video explains that CO2 from automobiles and factories could cause global temperatures to rise, melting ice caps and causing a rise in sea level.