CLIMATE WATCH - An Outline of the History of Climate Science

1800-1870 

Level of carbon dioxide gas (CO2) in the atmosphere, as later measured in ancient ice, was about 290 ppm (parts per million).


Global temperature for 1850-1870 was about 13.6°C.

1824
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier calculated that the Earth would be far colder if it lacked an atmosphere. 



1856

Eunice Foote describes filling glass jars with water vapour, carbon dioxide and air, and comparing how much they heated up in the sun.
“The highest effect of the sun’s rays I have found to be in carbonic acid gas,” 
 “The receiver containing the gas became itself much heated – very sensibly more so than the other – and on being removed, it was many times as long in cooling.”
1859
John Tyndall discovered that some gases block infra-red radiation. 


He suggested that changes in the concentration of the gases could bring climate change.



1930s 
Milutin Milankovitch proposed orbital changes as the cause of ice ages. 


1938 
Guy Callendar showed that global warming was underway, reviving interest in the question. 


1958 
Telescope studies showed a greenhouse effect raises temperature of the atmosphere of Venus far above the boiling point of water. 


1960 

Charles David Keeling accurately measured CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere.

He was not expecting to detect an annual rise.

The CO2 level was 315 parts per million (ppm)and global temperature (five-year average) was 13.9°C.

Climate research comes from geology, geophysics, geochemistry, palaeontology, oceanography, atmospheric physics, meteorology, glaciology, etc etc etc. Hundreds of thousands of scientific papers, over decade after decade, since the 19th century. It's not some fringe thing from a handful of scientists.


Climate science is probably one of the most thoroughly scrutinised fields of science ever - on top of the peer review process for each paper it has something that has never existed in any area of science before - the IPCC process. 


The current scientific understanding of climate change (as summarised in IPCC reports) is accepted by every professional association of scientists on Earth - in every field of science. Over 200 academies, including chemists, physicists, geologists, etc etc.

Those associations represent the global scientific community of around 8 million research scientists. 

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