# Global warning prediction, 110 years ago **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 11, 2022, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-warning-prediction-110-years-ago/969496 "2022-08-11T15:34:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-warning-prediction-110-years-ago/969496/1 "2022-08-11T15:34:48Z")
See this from New Zealand: > **[Log into Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/SustainabilityWorld/photos/a.2150119818374164/5504006036318842/)** > > Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know. Notice that those amounts are in billions (American style billions) of tons. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-warning-prediction-110-years-ago/969496/2 "2022-08-11T16:49:22Z")
I assumed it was faked, but apparently, it’s true. Nobody listened to them back then either… > **[Did a 1912 Newspaper Article Predict Global Warming?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/1912-article-global-warming/)** > > A newspaper clipping from 1912 that anticipates the global warming potential of burning coal is authentic and consistent with the history of climate science. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-warning-prediction-110-years-ago/969496/3 "2022-08-11T16:57:53Z")
As the link says, the greenhouse gas effect was discovered in 1896 by Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius, who would win the Novel Prize in Chemistry in 1903. No, everybody did not immediately abandon coal. Other scientists in fact argued against his predictions. Besides, coal was the basis of every economy. Global warming is much like the dangers of smoking. People have been issuing warnings for more than a century, but they never stuck and those addicted to the effects they like remain numerous around the world. Too bad we can’t put warning labels of air. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-warning-prediction-110-years-ago/969496/4 "2022-08-11T19:21:10Z")
German naturalist and geographer recognized and published on the effects of human-induced climate change in the early 19th Century, so over two hundred years ago: > **[The Forgotten Father of Environmentalism](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/12/the-forgotten-father-of-environmentalism/421434/)** > > Alexander von Humboldt revolutionized the Western conception of nature by describing it as an interconnected living web—and in doing so, inspired thinkers from Darwin to Thoreau. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-warning-prediction-110-years-ago/969496/5 "2022-08-11T19:36:42Z")
Ninjaed by Stranger. As I always say, if you’re going to get Ninjaed, get Ninjaed by the best ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/global-warning-prediction-110-years-ago/969496/6 "2022-08-11T23:12:02Z")
There were two classroom science films that I recall. One, “The Unchained Goddess” (1958), made for TV, has been often cited as spreading the idea to a wide public. Relevant excerpt: [Global Warming Film from 1950s - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6YyvdYPrhY) The other (which got a little more technical in describing the greenhouse effect) was from the 1960s - don’t recall the title, but it posited that much of the temperate regions of the world may someday be semi-tropical, and showed a map of the US with palm trees all over it to drive the point home. Neither really proposed what to do about it though.