15 April 2011

History of Modern Climate Science

This video condenses the history of modern climate science into 1 minute and 40 seconds.



* 1824 - Joseph Fourier discovered the greenhouse effect.
* 1859 - John Tyndall discovered that H2O and CO2 absorb infrared confirming the Fourier greenhouse effect.
* 1896 - Svante Arrhenius proposed human CO2 emissions would prevent earth from entering next ice age (challenged 1906).
* 1950’s - Guy Callendar found H2O and CO2 did not overlap all spectra bands, therefore warming from CO2 expected (countered the 1906 objections against Arrhenius).
* 1955 - Hans Suess identified the isotopic signature of industrial based CO2 emissions.
* 1956 - Gilbert Plass calculated adding CO2 would significantly change radiation balance.
* 1957 - Roger Revelle and Suess suggested oceans would absorb less CO2 causing more global warming than predicted.
* 1958/60’s - Charles David Keeling proved CO2 was increasing in the atmosphere.
* 1970’s/1980’s Syukuro Manabe and James Hansen began modeling climate projections.
* 1990s - instrumental temperature records from NCAR, GISS, Hadley, CRU, UAH, MSU, all confirm models of warming global climate. So do trends in glacier melt and retreat, sea level rise and latitudinal shift.

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