What you learned in school
Early environmental science classes in the 1970s and 1980s taught that global warming would be a gradual process taking centuries or millennia to produce noticeable effects. Students learned that climate change was a distant future concern that would primarily affect their great-great-grandchildren. Textbooks presented climate change as a slow, linear process where effects would accumulate over geological timescales, making it seem like a theoretical problem rather than an immediate concern requiring urgent action.
What we know now
Early environmental science classes taught that global warming would be a gradual process taking centuries to produce noticeable effects. Students learned about climate change as a distant future problem for their great-grandchildren. Climate change effects have become apparent much faster than initially predicted. Arctic ice loss, sea level rise, extreme weather events, and ecosystem shifts are occurring within decades rather than centuries. Feedback loops and tipping points have accelerated some changes. The pace of climate change has outstripped many early predictions, requiring more urgent action than originally anticipated.