3 A: WHY IS THERE DEBATE ON CLIMATE CHANGE?

3A: Why is there a debate on Climate Change?

T H E H I S T O RY O F T H E G L B A L WA R M I N G D E B AT E

Task: Add information to your timeline to provide some historical context to

the climate change debate.

1|Page
 3 A: WHY IS THERE DEBATE ON CLIMATE CHANGE?

1824 - The greenhouse effect 1958 – Accurate measurements of global atmospheric

was discovered by French CO2 began at the Mauna Loa Observatory on Hawaii. This
Physicist Joseph Fourier. database provided incontrovertible proof that CO2
concentrations in the atmosphere were increasing year
by year.
1862 – John Tyndall first
suggested that certain gases
( water vapour and CO2 )
1970s – A long running debate took place in the 1970s
trapped heat escaping from the
between scientists who argued that global warming was a
earth’s atmosphere system and
reality and those who favoured global cooling and an
that glacial were associated
imminent new glacial period. However, satellite imaging
with low periods of
and computer modelling advanced arguments one in
atmospheric CO2.
favour of global warming. Moreover computer models
revealed that human activity by releasing CO2 was
1896 – The Swedish scientist probably the main forcing agent of global warming and
Svente Arrhenius observe that climate change.
CO2 is and absorber of long-
wave radiation emitted by the
Earth.
1988 – The international panel on climate change
1938 – Discussion of global ( IPCC )was set up.
warming then lapsed for several
decades until 1938 when Guy
Callendar , an amateur scientist,
linked global warming in the 1997 – The Kyoto protocol was created in 1997. For the
19th century to omissions of first time except legally finding targets on countries to
CO2 from burning fossil feels. reduce their GHG emissions. 192 countries where parties
to the Kyoto protocol though several major GHG
committees including the USA and China never ratified the
treaty.
1957 – Hans Suess and Roger
Revelle Discovered a complex
chemical process which limited
the capacity of the oceans to
absorb CO2. This meant that
the residents time of CO2 in the
atmosphere was much longer
than previously thought and it
was from this time that the
debate of global warming finally
took off.

2|Page
 3 A: WHY IS THERE DEBATE ON CLIMATE CHANGE?

W H A T I S H E R R O L E I N T H E
C L I M A T E C H A N G E D E B A T E ?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/23/greta-thunberg

3|Page
 3 A: WHY IS THERE DEBATE ON CLIMATE CHANGE?

Task: Decide if the following points are in favour or against human forcing of
our climate.

 The 2010 Anderegg study found that 97-98% of climate researchers publishing most
actively in their field agree that human activity is primarily responsible for global
climate change.
 In 2010 Climate Depot released a report featuring more than 1,000 scientists, several
of them former UN IPCC scientists, who disagreed that humans are primarily
responsible for global climate change. Changes in solar and volcanic activity are often
cited as being contributors.
 Earth's climate has always warmed and cooled, and the 20th century rise in global
temperature is within the bounds of natural temperature fluctuations over the past
3,000 years.
 Dramatic changes in precipitation, such as heavier storms and less snow, are another
sign that humans are causing global climate change.
 Rising levels of human-produced gases released into the atmosphere create a
greenhouse effect that traps heat and causes global warming.
 Average temperatures on earth have increased at a rate far faster than can be
explained by the models of natural climatic changes alone.
 CO2 is already saturated in earth’s atmosphere, and more CO2, manmade or natural,
will have little impact on climate.
 About a quarter of the globe's glacial loss from 1851-2010, and approximately two
thirds of glacial loss between 1991-2010, is attributable directly to global warming
caused by human-produced greenhouse gases.
 The IPCC predicted that Himalayan glaciers would likely melt away by 2035, a
prediction they disavowed in 2010. In 2014 a study of study of 2,181 Himalayan
glaciers from 2000-2011 showed that 86.6% of the glaciers were not receding.
 Increased hurricane activity and other extreme weather events are a result of natural
weather patterns, not human-caused climate change.

In favour of the idea of humans warming our climate

Against the idea of humans warming our climate

 Task: Using www.climatechange.procon.org. Outline and

evaluate the arguments that global warming are explained by
natural processes and not by anthropogenic carbon emissions.

4|Page
 3 A: WHY IS THERE DEBATE ON CLIMATE CHANGE?

5|Page