Experts Say a New Ice Age is Imminent

You don't know what you don't know, today's data, is it more or less reliable than data collected from the 18th, 19th or 20th centuries? No its always the best we have, potentially flawed, misinterpreted, misrepresented and only valuable if the reader understands how it was collected and what its contextual significance is. One thing is for sure, science will always leave you with more questions than answers, it goes with the job description, useful to do and act as a guide but always fatally flawed.

"1970's ice age predictions were predominantly media based with the majority of scientific papers predicting warming." - http://www.skepticalscience.com/ice-age-predictions-in-1970s.htm

Here is the article by atmospheric scientist Peterson, glaciologist Connolloy & reporter Fleck.

The Myth of the 1970s Global Cooling Scientific Consensus
Bulletin of American Meteorological Society, Sept 08
http://ams.allenpress.com/archive/1520-0477/89/9/pdf/i1520-0477-89-9-132...

Scientists can estimate the global temperature record based on thermometer readings, but that isn't the only thing they consider. Such estimates have error bars and yes, the bars are smaller now than in the 19th and 18th centuries. This is readily visible in some displays. Coverage is much wider now too.

I've read the 1975 Nation Academy of Sciences report that Sinclar mentions. The conclusions were nebulous, but their recommendations were not. They firmly recommended expanding research efforts, measurements, computation and modeling capabilities. The suggestions were followed, those things were all done and because of that, more reliable results are now available. No one likes the findings, but they cannot be ignored.