During the 1960s, Walter Cronkite was given the title “The Most Trusted Man in America.” He reported news events from 1937 to 1981, including everything from World War II and the Nuremberg trials to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. to the Moon landings and Space Shuttle. Cronkite is known for his departing catchphrase “And that’s the way it is,” followed by the date.

Most people don’t realize that climate change was the talk of the town more than 40 years ago:

“On September 11, 1972, Cronkite cited scientists’ predictions that there was a ‘new ice age’ coming. He called that prediction from British scientist Hubert Lamb ‘a bit of bad news.’

“‘But then there is some good news,’ Cronkite continued. ‘That while the weather may be just a little colder in the immediate years to come, the full extent of the new ice age won’t be reached for 10,000 years.’

“And if you can stand any more good news, even then it won’t be as bad as the last ice age 60,000 years ago. Then New York, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, were under 5,000 feet of ice. Presumably no traffic moved and school was let out for the day. And that’s the way it is, Monday, September 11, 1972.”

Lamb “was no fringe scientist. He founded the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Great Britain. When he died, the CRU director called him ‘the greatest climatologist of his time,’ according to the Global Warming Policy Foundation [GWPF]. He was also credited with establishing ‘climate change as a serious research subject.’”

Here’s the kicker. “Unlike scientists often quoted by the media today, GWPF said that Lamb viewed the Earth’s climate as changing constantly and naturally.”

There’s a good possibility that there was little money in “global cooling” and “climate change” in 1972. As a result, scientists most likely engaged in real science, unlike today when crisis science means big research bucks. No crisis . . . no money.

Times sure have changed.

During an Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “Gina McCarthy defended the EPA’s request for an $8.6 billion discretionary budget (a 6 percent increase) for fiscal year 2016, arguing that climate change is a ‘real’ threat and ‘a science fact,’ ‘not a religion’ or ‘belief system.’”

When asked to answer simple questions related to the science of “climate change,” she would not or could not. Why should she? It’s “settled science,” and who is going to call her or her agency to account?

About “climate change” not being a religion, here’s what Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientist Dr. Rajenda Pachauri, who was leading the fight against “climate change” at the United Nations, wrote following in his resignation after being dismissed because of a sexual harassment complaint: “For me the protection of Planet Earth, the survival of all species and sustainability of our ecosystems is more than a mission. It is my religion and my dharma.”