Preview

Chapter 1 Historical Background To The Study Of Climate Change

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2002 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Chapter 1 Historical Background To The Study Of Climate Change
GE
Chapter 1. Historical Background

Historical Background to the
Study of Climate Change
In the 19th century, scientists realized that gases in the atmosphere caused a "greenhouse effect" which affected the planet's temperature. These scientists were interested in the possibility that a lower level of carbon dioxide gas might explain the ice ages of the distant past.

At the turn of the century, Svante Arrhenius calculated that the emissions from human industry might someday bring a global warming. Other scientists dismissed his idea as faulty.

The History of Atmospheric
Science
1750s:
• Joseph Black identified carbon dioxide in the air.
• A Scottish scientist known for his work on latent heat, specific heat and CO2.

The History of Atmospheric
Science

• Nitrogen was discovered by the
Scottish scientist
Daniel Rutherford in
1772.

The History of Atmospheric
Science
1781:
• Henry Cavendish measures the percentage composition of nitrogen and oxygen in the air.
Henry Cavendish was a
British scientist noted for his discovery of hydrogen.

The History of Atmospheric
Science
• English chemist
Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen in 1774.

Historical Background
1820s:
Joseph
Fourier
postulated that some of the gases in the atmosphere must trap heat.

Historical Background
John Tyndall was a prominent Irish physicist in the 19th century. Beginning in the late
1850s,
Tyndall studied the action of radiant energy on the constituents of air. Historical Background
• John Tyndall found out that gases like water vapour (H2O), carbon dioxide CO2 and CH4 could trap heat rays in the Earth’s atmosphere. Historical Background
• Svante
August
Arrhenius was a
Swedish scientist from Stockholm, who won a Nobel
Prize in chemistry in 1903.

Historical Background
1890s:
Svante Arrhenius completed a numerical experiment, which suggested that cutting the amount of carbon dioxide-CO2 in the
Earth’s atmosphere by half could lower the temperature in Europe by some 4-5oC.
This

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    How many grams of fat do you consume on an average day? 2. How many calories does this represent? 3. What percentage of your total energy is contributed by fat?…

    • 1601 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The author, “Contoski, asserts that global warming is scientifically unproven and that the facts reveal that the earth periodically experiences changing climates” (Global Warming Is a Myth). Contoski “denies that carbon dioxide emissions have any noticeable impact on global temperatures claims that human-made emissions are insignificant when compared to carbon output of natural sources that have always been beyond human control.” (Global Warming is a Myth)…

    • 842 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Weather and Climate HW#1

    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages

    8. The three abiotic spheres are the Atmosphere, Hydrosphere and the Lithosphere. Each one of these spheres interacts with each other and the biosphere in unique and different ways. The atmosphere works with the biosphere in that it uses the gases released from living things to form itself. It also receives gases from the Lithosphere, or the earths crust to help form itself. The atmosphere helps all living things survive by keeping an oxygen rich environment and keeping out harmful rays from the sun. The lithosphere helps control the movement of heat from within the earths crust to help make it possible for life to survive. It also is part of the soil layer which is essential to plant life. The Hydrosphere is very important because it has all the water on earth. This is in the form of ice sheets, liquid or vapor, and they are all essential to the survival of living things.…

    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Notable author, educator, and environmentalist, Bill McKibben, in his essay, “Global Warming: Get Up! Stand Up!”, argues the effects on global warming to the environment. He argues from his environmentalist experience that carbon dioxide is not only harming the ozone layer. McKibben’s purpose it to persuade readers to stand up for what they need and start a movement. He takes a defensive tone in order to inform the minds of his readers. In McKibben’s article “Global Warming: Get Up! Stand Up!” states the growing problem of global warming and urges readers to start a movement to end the problem.…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Essay On Climate Change

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Over the last century we have witnessed a decrease of nearly 10 percentage snow cover and…

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Satellites orbiting the earth and other advanced technologies have enabled scientists to collect many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. This body of data, collected over many years, reveals the signals of a changing climate.The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th century. Their ability to affect the transfer of infrared energy through the atmosphere is the scientific basis of many instruments flown by NASA. There is no question that increased levels of greenhouse gases must cause the Earth to warm in…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Story of Us

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Using the Gibb categories give three examples of defensive and or supportive behaviors that Ben and Katie used in the film.…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Carbon Cycle

    • 3147 Words
    • 13 Pages

    “The global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased from a pre-industrial value of about 280 ppm to 379 ppm in 2005. The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide in 2005 exceeds by far the natural range over the last 650,000 years (180 to 300 ppm) as determined from ice cores. The annual carbon dioxide concentration growth rate was larger during the last 10 years (1995–2005 average: 1.9 ppm per year), than it has been since the beginning of continuous direct atmospheric measurements (1960–2005 average: 1.4 ppm per year) although there is year-to-year variability in growth rates .”…

    • 3147 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Benzene

    • 8571 Words
    • 35 Pages

    [25] Ladenburg, Albert (1869) "Bemerkungen zur aromatischen Theorie" (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Epg8AAAAIAAJ& pg=PA140)…

    • 8571 Words
    • 35 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The History of Oxygen

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Another scientist named Lavoisier proved that air is a mixture of two gases: vital air, which is essential to combustion and respiration, and azote, which is now called Nitrogen in English and did not support either. Lavoisier renamed 'vital air' to oxygène in 1777 from the Greek roots ὀξύς “oxys” and -γενής “-genēs”. Oxygen entered the English language despite opposition by English scientists. This substance is an important part of the atmosphere, and is necessary to sustain most terrestrial…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Term Paper (Climate Change)

    • 2470 Words
    • 10 Pages

    It is a great opportunity for me to write about subject like “Climate Change”. At…

    • 2470 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    DIASTROPHISM: THE BENDING, WARPING OR FOLDING OF THE EARHT’S CRUST; Large-scale deformation of the Earth's crust by natural processes,…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On Climate

    • 1048 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “Places around the equator and those at latitude 60N are dominated by low pressure belts. Yet the weather and heat transfer processes in the two regions are very different. The weather in the equatorial region is often unchanging while that along latitude 60’N is variable.”…

    • 1048 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Climate Notes

    • 1627 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Should be the 1st thing we attempt to do to adapt the building to the climate…

    • 1627 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Climate Change Term Paper

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Are we a burden to the society or a blessing? , We are the ones who will choose our own way, but we must see to it that the path that we are heading will not lead us to destruction.…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays