| 1827 |
French mathematician Joseph Fourier predicts the greenhouse effect. |
| 1860s |
Irish physicist John Tyndall confirms Fourier's prediction and identifies the relative radiative forcing values of the different greenhouse gases. |
| 1896 |
Swedish geochemist Svante Arrhenius suggests that human activity – principally the burning of fossil fuels -- will result in global warming. "We are evaporating our coal mines into the air," Arrhenius writes. But failing to foresee how rapidly the use of fossil energy would increase during the 20th Century, he predicts that significant climate changed will not occur for 3,000 years. |
| 1938 |
G.S. Callender calculates that higher atmospheric levels of CO2 have already caused warming in North America and Europe. |
| 1950s |
American scientists David Keeling and Roger Revelle measure atmospheric carbon dioxide and confirm that CO2 concentrations are rising. "Human beings are now carrying out a large-scale geophysical experiment," Revelle concludes. Keeling, Revelle and others begin expressing their concerns about global warming to U.S. presidents of both parties. |
| 1959 |
Swedish meteorologist Bert Bolin warns the National Academy of Sciences in the U.S. that atmospheric concentrations of CO2 would rise 25% from 1850 to 2000. |
| 1965 |
The President's Science Advisory Committee warns President Lyndon Johnson that human activity could produce "marked changes in climate." In a special message to Congress, President Johnson reports that "this generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through…a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels." |
| 1966 |
The National Academy of Sciences warns that growing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide could lead to "inadvertent weather modification." |
| 1978 |
The first administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Robert White, reports: "We now understand that industrial wastes, such as carbon dioxide released during the burning of fossil fuels, can have consequences for climate that pose a considerable threat to future society." |
| 1979 |
The National Academy of Sciences advises President Carter that "if carbon dioxide continues to increase, we find no reason to doubt that climate changes will result and no reason to believe that these changes will be negligible." |
| 1988 |
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is created. In the U.S. Congress, Republican Rep. Claudine Schneider of Rhode Island introduces HR 5460, the first comprehensive, revenue-neutral bill to address climate change. |
| 1989 |
In a speech at Helena, Montana, President George H.W. Bush says: "In February, the United States will host the plenary meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change…I mean to keep it right there at the top of the agenda...We hold this land in trust for the generations that come after. The air and the Earth are riches we simply cannot squander." |
| 1992 |
The international community creates the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which calls for limiting greenhouse gas emissions to a level that avoids dangerous interference with the climate system. The framework later is signed by President George H.W. Bush and ratified unanimously by the United States Senate. It goes into effect in 1994. |
| 1993 |
The Clinton Administration implements the federal government's first climate action plan. |
| 1997: |
Negotiations are completed on the Kyoto Protocol. Vice President Gore leads the U.S. team. |
| 2001 |
The U.S. announces its refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. During remarks in the Rose Garden, President George W. Bush says: "The Earth's well-being is…an issue important to America. And it's an issue that should be important to every nation in every part of our world. The issue of climate change respects no border. Its effects cannot be reined in by an army nor advanced by any ideology. Climate change, with its potential to impact every corner of the world, is an issue that must be addressed by the world." |
| Feb. 2005 |
The Kyoto Protocol is ratified, but not by the United States or Australia. |
| May 2006 |
During a speech in Glasgow, Scotland, former President Bill Clinton says:
"There has never been a nation destroyed by terrorism alone and it's not about to start now. But I think this climate change has the capacity to change the way all of us live on Earth." |
| April 2007 |
In a landmark ruling against the Bush Administration's refusal to regulate carbon emissions, the U.S. Supreme Court writes: "The harms associated with climate change are serious and well recognized. The Government's own objective assessment of the relevant science and a strong consensus among qualified experts indicate that global warming threatens, inter alia, a precipitate rise in sea levels, severe and irreversible changes to natural ecosystems, a significant reduction in winter snowpack with direct and important economic consequences, and increases in the spread of disease and the ferocity of weather events." |
| Oct. 2007 |
The IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore win the Nobel Prize. |
| Nov. 2007 |
The IPCC issues its final report of 2007, concluding that the climate is changing as a result of human activity and time is growing short if we are to avoid catastrophic worldwide consequences. |
| Dec. 2007 |
Under a new Prime Minister, Australia ratifies the Kyoto Protocol, leaving the United States as the only wealthy nation not to do so.
Representatives of 130 nations gather at Bali to begin discussions on how the international community will collaborate after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. In a scene that is rare in diplomatic affairs, the U.S. delegation is booed loudly by representatives of other nations after declaring that it would not go along with a proposed agreement on international collaboration. The United States is asked either to lead the international community or to "get out of the way." The U.S. delegation reverses position and accedes to the Bali agreement, but insists on eliminating specific goals for emissions reduction.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency denies a request by California and 16 other states to set their own more stringent restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles. |
| Jan. 2008 |
California and 15 other states sue EPA in an effort to overturn its decision. The state's attorney general calls EPA's decision "illegal, unconscionable and a gross dereliction of duty." |
