Climate change (also known as “global warming”) occurs when an over-abundance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere causes the average temperature of the earth to increase. Greenhouse gases (GHG), which include carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and other gases, permit the sun’s light to reach the earth’s surface, but then act as a blanket prohibiting some of the resultant warmth reflecting off the surface from escaping into space. This “greenhouse effect” causes the earth’s lower atmosphere and surface to heat up.
Before the industrial revolutions in various countries began to dramatically increase the amount of GHG in the atmosphere, the greenhouse effect acted naturally to warm the earth. The phenomenon kept the earth’s average temperature at a comfortable (for humans, anyway) 58 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas without it, the earth would average around -2 degrees F. Scientists have known about the greenhouse effect for many years. A French mathematician, Jean Baptiste Fourier, first discovered the greenhouse properties of carbon dioxide and other atmospheric gases in 1827.
Scientists began noticing changes in the earth’s climate in the late 1970’s, and some believed that GHG were responsible. However, it wasn’t until Dr. James Hansen, of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), testified in 1988 at a U.S. Senate hearing chaired by then-Senator Albert Gore, that the climate change issue was brought to the attention of politicians and the general public.
Numerous bills addressing climate change were subsequently introduced by legislators from both political parties in response to Dr. Hansen’s groundbreaking testimony. As the U.S. entered the 1990s, however, the issue of climate change began to increasingly get entangled in politics. And since that seemingly nonpolitical introduction to the country in 1988, the issue has become deeply embroiled in national politics, probably dooming any comprehensive federal response to climate change in the near future.
