The principle of the greenhouse effect was first put forward in the 1800s by scientists including Joseph Fourier and Svante Arrhenius , who also noticed that our burning of fossil fuels would release carbon dioxide and warm the planet. Since then, this principle has been tested by scientists using laboratory experiments and computer simulations . These different approaches have demonstrated that our emissions of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide) will result in global net warming and therefore local changes to weather patterns.



We can calculate the extra energy trapped by the extra CO2 generated in your pathway, by using Arrhenius' formula for the rate of heat trapping, Q = 3.71 x ln (C/C_0) Joules of energy per square meter per second. The constant 3.71 comes from the latest IPCC report.