Climate science is not an opinion. It has a century-long foundation.
Translated from French, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.
At a glance
- Climate science is based on facts and evidence, not opinion, and has a century-long foundation.
- Theories linking atmospheric CO2 to global warming date back to Svante Arrhenius in 1896, with modern climate science built on decades of research.
- The article emphasizes that scientific findings, like those on climate change, can be contested by established powers but remain based on evidence.
Climate science is not a matter of opinion, but a field built on facts and evidence that has been developing for over a century. The fundamental theory connecting atmospheric carbon dioxide to global warming, established by Svante Arrhenius in 1896, is more than 100 years old.
In the latter half of the 20th century, numerous scientists recognized that the increasing combustion of fossil fuels like oil, gas, and coal was leading to a significant accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere. This accumulation was predicted to inevitably cause substantial global warming of the atmosphere, continents, and oceans, resulting in massive climate disruptions.
Two key figures in establishing modern climate science, Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2021 for their research, which dates back to the 1960s. This underscores that the foundations of climate research rest on a solid base of several decades of work. The article stresses that scientific evidence, even when unwelcome or contested by those in power, is established through rigorous methods and available evidence, drawing a parallel to historical figures like Galileo.
Originally published by Le Temps in French. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.