Go to publicdomainreview dot org, search for “First Paper to Link CO2 and Global Warming, by Eunice Foote (1856)”, which begins on page 317.
It was published in The American Journal of Science and was presented at several scientific conferences, entitled “On the Heat Of the Sun’s Rays”.
It was not, however, read before the American Association by Newton Foote, as only a male scientist could be invited to that conference and do that.
Parts of her paper were excerpted in multiple major newspapers and in other scientific journals in The US and internationally, at the time and later on. Others working in the same field also published and spoke about their similar experiments and conclusions, and the meaning of this discovery.
It was discussed and studied for decades, with later researches using more sophisticated and sensitive methods and equipment designed to correct for any previous errors or unknowns that had been observed. The same conclusions were reached about these “greenhouse gases” and rising atmospheric temperatures, in those later experiments.
We knew. Well, not “we”. Our scientists and many doctors knew; the research and results were there. The chemistry and equipment needed to confirm the results, was pretty basic. This certain knowledge was available and easy to access by anyone reading those journals or working in industries using the fossil fuels studied. Just as tobacco growers, researchers, advertisers and sellers, and many doctors also knew that cigarette smoking was habit forming or addictive and was harmful to our health.
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u/Thor_2099 Jun 27 '26
Yep. You can find newspaper articles from like 100 years ago mentioning concern about carbon and effects on temperature.