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The Greenhouse Effect
•Romans - 1st century AD  - greenhouse effect
•Fourier - 1824 – theory gaseous greenhouse effect
•Tyndall – 1860 -  experiments – water vapor
•Arrhenius – 1896 – coal burning => CO2 increase
•Callendar – 1938 – atmospheric CO2 increasing
•Keeling – 1957 to present – CO2 measurements
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The most noticeable example of the greenhouse effect these days is the heating inside our cars in the sun. Short wavelength visible radiation passes through the glass and heats interior surfaces.  These warm the air inside the car and the glass traps the heat inside.

Fourier, an early expert on heat science postulated that gases in the atmosphere could trap heat in a similar way. Energy from the sun mostly passes through the atmospheric blanket to warm the surface. The warmed surface re radiates energy out toward space at longer wavelengths. The atmosphere captures some of that energy and is warmed.

Tyndall confirmed this with experiments and demonstrated that water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas. It and other "natural" greenhouse gases warm earth's surface atmosphere about 33 degrees C.

Others raised concerns that burning   coal could add sufficient carbon dioxide to the atmosphere to increase the greenhouse gas effect. Callendar and Keeling confirmed rising carbon dioxide level and established an extensive global greenhouse gas monitoring system in the mid 1950's.