Student Article

The origins of climate change science date back to the 19th Century, with pioneering scientists making significant contributions to our understanding of how the Earth's atmosphere influences temperature.

The beginning of climate science

Eunice Newton Foote, an American scientist and women's rights activist, is often credited as one of the first to recognize the role of carbon dioxide in warming the planet. In 1856, she conducted experiments in which she placed different gases in glass cylinders and exposed them to sunlight. Her observations led her to conclude that carbon dioxide absorbed and retained heat more effectively than other gases, thus raising the temperature of the atmosphere.

Foote's forgotten work

Foote's research was initially published but soon faded into obscurity. It wasn't until 1859, when John Tyndall conducted similar experiments, that the scientific community began to pay attention. Tyndall's work established a foundation for later discoveries about how certain gases in the atmosphere can trap heat, contributing to the warming of the Earth. However, Tyndall did not link his findings to human activities, such as burning coal and deforestation, which would later play a role in driving global warming.

Svante Arrhenius and the 6°C prediction

Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish physicist, expanded upon Foote's work in the late 19th Century. His research focused on the role of carbon dioxide in the Earth's climate system, and he famously calculated that doubling the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could increase global temperatures by 5 to 6 degrees Celsius (~10 degrees Fahrenheit). While he recognized that industrialization was increasing carbon dioxide emissions, he initially viewed this as a potential benefit, as he believed it could help prevent an ice age. Arrhenius's work was groundbreaking, but it wasn't until the 20th Century, as fossil fuel consumption skyrocketed, that scientists began to link human activities to global warming in a more direct way.

A call for action in the 1930s

Despite early skepticism, the scientific community continued to explore the relationship between carbon dioxide and global temperatures. In 1938, British engineer Guy Callendar made a significant contribution to the field by presenting a paper to the Royal Meteorological Society in which he argued that human emissions of carbon dioxide were already contributing to a noticeable rise in global temperatures. However, his ideas were largely dismissed at the time, with many scientists skeptical of the theory. It wasn't until the 1950s, with the groundbreaking work of Charles David Keeling, that the scientific consensus on climate change began to solidify.

Keeling’s big breakthrough

Keeling's famous Keeling Curve, which tracks the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, showed a clear upward trend in CO₂ levels, providing undeniable evidence of human impact on the climate. By the 1970s and 1980s, climate change began to be seen as a real and urgent problem, with scientists warning of rising global temperatures, melting ice caps, and more extreme weather patterns. Today, the overwhelming majority of climate scientists agree that human activity is the primary driver of climate change, and the crisis continues to worsen as greenhouse gas emissions reach unprecedented levels.

© Dr. Alice Bell / www.historyextra.com