Greenhouse effect and ice ages: historical perspective

This article provides a brief historical perspective on the first scientific research on the greenhouse effect and glaciations. While these two aspects of our climate can be investigated separately, naturalists, physicists and chemists during the 19th century were interested jointly in both issues, as well as the possible relationship between them. The contributions of famous pioneers are mentioned, ranging from scholars with encyclopaedic knowledge such as Horace-Benedict de Saussure, to modern scientists like Svante Arrhenius, who was first to predict global warming as a consequence of using fossil fuels. Despite fragmentary observations, these pioneers had prophetic insights. Indeed, the main fundamental concepts used nowadays have been developed during the 19th century. However, we must wait until the second half of the 20th century to see a true revolution of investigative techniques in the Earth Sciences, enabling full access to previously unknown components of the climate system, such as deep oceans and the interior of the polar ice caps. (C) 2004 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.