History of climate change science

High school (ages 12+)
Environment & Earth

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/history-of-climate-change-science

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the initial hypothesis of atmospheric insulation?Joseph Fourier, 1824
2. What is the experimental confirmation of gas absorption?Eunice Newton Foote, 1856
3. What did Joseph Fourier discover about Earth's atmosphere in 1824?He proposed that the atmosphere works like an insulator, trapping heat from the Earth's surface. This idea is now called the greenhouse effect.
4. How did Eunice Newton Foote show that gases can warm the Earth?In 1856 she did experiments that showed air with water vapor or carbon dioxide absorbed much more solar heat than dry air, proving that these gases can warm the planet.

Greenhouse Effect: The process by which radiation from the Earth's atmosphere warms the planet's surface, trapping heat.
Radiative Forcing: The change in the net energy balance of the Earth system due to some factor, such as greenhouse gas concentrations.
Anthropogenic: Originating in human activity.
Paleoclimate: The study of past climates of the Earth.