Climate changes

When did you first realise that climate changes?

The Fall of Phaeton Statue by Dominique Lefebvre. Source: Wikipedia

So far as we know, the first person to realise that climate changes was Shen Kuo in 1088. Since then, we have learned a great deal about how the climate changes naturally, and why.

How we got here

Then came agricultural revolutions, starting with the Neolithic Revolution around 11,700 years ago after the last Ice Age and continuing today with the use of fossil fuels to power machinery. make fertiliser, and transport and refrigerate food. They have had an increasing impact on our planet.

Then in 1712, Thomas Newcomen invented the first steam engine that was widely used, starting the industrial revolution and the widespread burning of coal.

But we did not recognise what impact this would have on the planet right away. Not only did it increase the amount of CO2 emitted per person, but it enabled our population to grow enormously.

The concept of greenhouse gases was first proposed by Joseph Fourier in 1822 (translation). In 1856, Eunice Newton Foote linked CO2 and global warming. In 1861, John Tyndall showed that water vapour and other gases contributed too. In 1896, Svante Arrhenius wrote about the effect of CO2 on ground temperature, and in 1896 modeled the effect of industrial-age coal burning (he wasn’t far out). This was…