Greenhouse gas historical perspective

Greenhouse gas historical perspective

In 1896, the first claim that fossil fuel combustion may relate to global warming was from Swedish scientist, Svante Arrhenius. He suggested the relation between temperature and carbon dioxide concentration in atmosphere. The average earth surface temperature is 15° C; however, if the concentration of CO₂ is double, the temperature could raise up to 5° C more. Svante and Thomas Chamberlin discovered that human activities such as releasing carbon dioxide to the atmosphere could warm the earth. At that time, no one thinks that human activities are influent on the climate compare to natural forces, such as solar or ocean activities. Their discovery was forgotten until recently. (Enzler, n.d.)

Infrared spectroscopy development was advanced in the 1940s.  The purpose is to measure long-wave radiation to determine the different types of water vapor absorption. In the 1950s, there was an indication that CO₂ has an estimated atmospheric lifespan of 10 years.  The indication also disagreed with the previous suggestion that CO₂ would dissolve in the ocean.  The findings show that the ocean could never sink all the atmospheric carbon dioxide. In the late 50s and early 60s, Charles Kneeling produced concentration curves that became an icon for global warming.  The curves show downward trend for temperature of the three decades, from 1940s to 1970s. The data was ignored in favor of global cooling. (Briggs, 2007)

In the 1980s, people started to pay more attention as they were noticing the mean of global temperature started to rise.  The notion of upcoming new ice age was being dismissed.  The Environmental Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) acted on environmental protection to prevent global warming. This has caused media and the press to pay more attention and gain more interest in the subject. With their interest, the media convinced viewers to the climate change and its negative impacts.  Stephen Schneider was credited for the first predicted global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), consists of more than 2,500 scientists and technical, was founded in 1988.  The IPCC’s latest version of the climate change reports is in 2001.

The theory of greenhouse effect was doubted due to uncertainties in data and outcomes. They believed that the measurements were inaccurate.  They believed that the global warming was overestimated the past century. This has caused the IPCC to review their data but not reassess the trends exist. We have learned that the 1998 was recorded as the warmest year, followed by 2002, 2003, 2001, and the year before 1997. The 10 warmest years were occurred since the 90s. (IPCC, 2001)

There are still discrepancies and disagreements of research models; however the data is continually checked and renewed. Research models are consistently updated and adjusted to new findings and new theories.