Historical CO2
Discovery of Global Warming
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Discoveries
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The Discovery of Global Warming is both a book and a series of online articles. Both are kept up to date by climate science historian Dr. Spencer Weart.
The highly-acclaimed book tells the history of climate science, and the discovery of climate change, as a concise, single story. As a retired physicist, Spencer Weart supplements the information in the book with ongoing updates to a series of inter-linked articles on the website of the American Institute of Physics (AIP).
To help people who want to know more about the historical aspects of global warming and climate change, a list of links to Spencer Wearts articles is made available at CO2Now.org.
The following links take you from CO2Now.org to the Discover Global Warming section of the AIP website.
Click "read more" to see the full list of links.
Getting Started
Summary of the history of climate change science [pdf]
Search all of Spencer Wearts online articles
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Discovery of Atmospheric CO2 Levels
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Discoveries
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Rewards and Penalties of Monitoring the Earth by Charles David Keeling
Rewards and Penalties of Monitoring the Earth is a 1998 autobiographical account of Dave Keeling's discovery of background levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It describes events that led to this discovery, and events that followed. It is a story of perserverence in the face of scientific and institutional challenges to push open the door of understanding of the rising levels of atmospheric CO2. A review in the scientific Journal, Nature, declares that Keeling's article "should be compulsory reading for politicians and science administrators." The reviewer adds that "idealistic young scientists, as yet unscarred, should read it and take note: courage and perseverance are required."
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography has reprinted the paper with the permission of the Annual Review of Energy and the Environment. Click here for more citations and republication information. Click here to download the paper directly from the Scripps website. |
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Antarctica Ice Core Timescales (EDC3)
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800,000 Years
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Scientists use the EDC3 chronology (2007) to establish the age of gases that are extracted from ice core samples. The EDC3 is described in the following paper.
The EDC3 chronology for the EPICA Dome C ice core
Parrenin et al. | Published in Climate of the Past, Issue 3, pp. 485-497, 2007
Abstract The EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) Dome C drilling in East Antarctica has now been completed to a depth of 3260 m, at only a few meters above bedrock. Here we present the new EDC3 chronology, which is based on the use of 1) a snow accumulation and mechanical flow model, and 2) a set of independent age markers along the core. These are obtained by pattern matching of recorded parameters to either absolutely dated paleoclimatic records, or to insolation variations. We show that this new time scale is in excellent agreement with the Dome Fuji and Vostok ice core time scales back to 100 kyr within 1 kyr. Discrepancies larger than 3 kyr arise during MIS 5.4, 5.5 and 6, which points to anomalies in either snow accumulation or mechanical flow during these time periods. We estimate that EDC3 gives accurate event durations within 20% (2σ) back to MIS11 and accurate absolute ages with a maximum uncertainty of 6 kyr back to 800 kyr.
Climate of the Past | Journal & Abstract Full article (pdf) Supplement (zip) Discussion Paper
Related:
CO2Now | 800,000 Years
CO2Now | CO2 Ice Core Data
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