When did scientists learn of the connection between Earth’s temperature and green houses in the atmosphere?

Discovery of the Connection Between Earth’s Temperature & Greenhouse Gases

Scientists have been able to determine that greenhouse gases are a major factor in Earth’s climate since the middle of the 1800s. Joseph Fourier in 1824 was the first one to explain that Earth’s atmosphere captures sunlight. It is also known as “the greenhouse effect”. It wasn’t until 1896, however, that Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius put forth the idea that the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation could increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and lead to an increase in global temperature (Hoffman & Schrag, 2020). A lot of research has been done since then to understand how greenhouse gases regulate the temperature of Earth. To synthesize scientific evidence on climate changes and their effects on our planet, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes (IPCC), was formed in 1988. The IPCC’s first assessment report in 1990 concluded that human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases were significantly contributing to the global warming trend (IPCC, 2019). In the decades since then, the evidence of the connection between Earth’s temperature and greenhouse gases has become overwhelming.