Carbon Dioxide
The discovery of CO2 in the atmosphere In 1756, the Scottish chemist, Joseph Black, proved that Carbon Dioxide was present in the atmosphere. The discovery of CO2's heat-trapping properties In 1856, Eunice Newton Foote established the heating trapping properties of CO2. This was confirmed by John Tyndall in 1859. Both of these early researchers warned of the dangers of increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere. A powerful trace gas Although it is a trace gas, CO2 is very effective at absorbing infrared radiation emitted by the Earth's surface. Most of the atmosphere - nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%) - doesn't absorb infrared at all. So even a small concentration of CO2 makes a big difference in how much heat is trapped. You can think of it like a few millimetres of glass in a greenhouse: the glass layer is thin compared to the air inside, but it fundmentally change how heat can escape. CO2's large climate impact CO2 has big climate effects and it stays in the atmosphere f...