Over 3,000 years ago, in Ancient Greece, people debated whether draining swamps or cutting down forests might bring more or less rainfall to the region, but these documented climate change discussions had a local focus.
In 1896, building up on works of other researchers, a Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927) became the first person to surmise that humanity could change the climate on a global scale.
In 1957, an American researcher Roger Revelle published a study, revealing that the ocean will not absorb all the carbon dioxide released in humanity’s industrial fuel emissions and that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere could rise significantly.
Since then, more studies appeared highlighting climate change as a potential threat to species and ecosystems around the world. However, it’s only at the end of the 1980s when the humanity took proper measures facing the global challenge.