Climate change: first wake-up call?
Sir, 'Our interest in the evolution of the atmosphere and of climate is of more than theoretical interest….Van Hise, on what he regards as a moderate estimate of the coal the human race will burn per annum during the present Century, estimates that in 812 years the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would be doubled. According to the view of Arrhenius such a change would greatly ameliorate the climate of the world. This view of the heat-holding effects of an increase of CO2 is not undisputed, but so large a change in the constitution of the atmosphere, by the hand of man himself, may well cause him to investigate, with serious persistence, the terrestrial consequences of his own deeds'.
From: Scenery, Soil and the Atmosphere, by A P Banham: Popular Science Monthly, June 1910, 570-580.
I feel that absolutely no comment is necessary.