Sounding the climate change alert... in 1958

Ah, YouTube, how did I ever entertain myself before you came into my life? This week I was browsing around the video site searching on various environment-related terms when I came across what turns out to be a favorite clip of the Al Gore "Inconvenient Truth" crowd. It's a snippet from an educational film from 1958 called "The Unchained Goddess," and you kind of have to see it to believe it.

Produced by Frank Capra for the Bell Telephone Company and featuring the voice talents of none other than Mel "Bugs Bunny" Blanc, this informative yet witty film, clearly aimed at audiences averaging age 14, succinctly explains how global warming could lead to a rise in sea levels that could put Miami under 150 feet of water.

Cue the images of the crumbling glaciers!

"Man may be unwittingly changing the world's climate through the waste products of his civilization," says the tweed-suited narrator.

Indeed! How funny for those of us who never really gave climate change a thought until five years ago to realize that at least one person was panicking about it 50 years ago.

Although less than two minutes of footage of "The Unchained Goddess" is available on YouTube, you can actually buy the complete film here. I bet Al Gore already has a copy.