woodchurch science

climate change is nothing new, it’s been going on for millennia! john tyndall was the first scientist to suggest that gases in the atmosphere had some climatic significance. tyndall’s experiments showed that molecules of water vapour, carbon dioxide and ozone are the best absorbers of heat radiation and that even in small quantities these gases absorb much more strongly than the atmosphere itself, a phenomenon of great meteorological importance. he concluded that among the constituents of the atmosphere, water vapour is the strongest absorber of radiant heat and is therefore the most important gas controlling the earths surface air temperature. he said that without water vapour the earths surface would be “held fast in the iron grip of frost”. he later speculated how changes in water vapour and carbon dioxide could be related to climate change. all in 1859! read more about his life here

This entry was posted on Monday, February 19th, 2007 at 4:14 pm and is filed under C1b, chemistry, environment, ks4, warren, y10. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.