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Our story starts in 1896 in Sweden with this guy sponsor Iranians a chemist. Iranians is the first person to figure out that putting CO2 into the atmosphere could make the earth warmer . But the prevailing wisdom at the time says that there is an infallible balance of nature which no human actions could ever possibly disturb so nobody takes our genius very seriously . Until 1938 when an engineer named guys to a calendar decides to look at global temperatures recorded over the past 50 years or so and figures out hey when you know the earth is getting warmer war breaks out in 1939 . Ends in 1945 and as the world's economy recovers industrial production goes into overdrive. The burning of coal and oil puts so much sulfur pollution into the atmosphere that partially blocks the sun's rays and the world actually gets slightly cooler over the next three decades. In the 1950s scientists are looking more closely at the possible effects of CO2 emissions on global temperatures. For the first time we start to realize that you can have a major problem on our hands a few degrees rise in the earth's temperature would melt the polar ice cap but the cold war is in full swing and we have more immediate Nikkei substantial threats to think about like nuclear holocaust and then cover the 1960s the cooling trend continues and there's even some fringe speculation that it could be heading for a new ice age. That all changes in the mid 70s when temperatures start going up again. The phrase global warming makes its first appearance in a 1975 research paper. Temperatures keep rising throughout the 80s and 1988 is the hottest year ever recorded to that point. This gets people's attention and global warming starts to enter mainstream public awareness for the first time human activities are changing the atmosphere. We face a global environmental crisis the global threat of climate change yes that's Margaret Thatcher one of the first world leaders to speak out about climate change. Interesting right. Anyway in 1995 an international group of scientists issued the first public statement that there is a discernible human influence on global climate. To this one they predict that 21st century warming will leave the 20th century in the dust over the next decade . Some of the anticipated effects of global warming start happening things like rising oceans intense droughts and heatwaves and powerful storms the 15 hottest years in history have all occurred since 1998 and 2015 is on track to be the hottest year ever recorded . So what does the future hold. If we curb CO2 emissions temperatures could rise as little as 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit by 20 99. That would be manageable. If we don't. Temperatures could rise more than 8 degrees which would mean massive food shortages widespread extinctions and a redrawing of the world's coastlines. The story of global warming will end with a changed climate. That's inevitable at this point how much it will change remains to be seen .