#2889: Greenhouse Effect
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Transcript
[At the top of the comic a timeline is shown as a long line. It has three dots, one at each end a bit inside the end of the line and one close to the middle Each dot has a gray curved line going up to it from below. Below the end of these lines a year is given. And beneath the year is a caption. Above the time line are two gray double arrows going from three gray lines above each of the three dots. The lines are broken in the middle where a label is written.]
[Label of arrow that spans from first to second dot:]
120 years
[Label of arrow that spans from second to third dot:]
128 years
[Label for the first dot:]
1776
James Watt develops a steam engine that helps kick off the Industrial Revolution
[Label for the second dot:]
1896
Arvid Högbom and Svante Arrhenius note that industrial activity is adding CO2 to the atmosphere, and calculate how much the Earth will heat up if the CO2 concentration doubles. Their answer closely matches modern estimates.
[Label for the third dot:]
2024
Today
[Caption below the panel:]
We figured out the greenhouse effect closer to the start of the Industrial Revolution than to today.
(Sourced from explainxkcd.com)
Title text:Once he had the answer, Arrhenius complained to his friends that he'd "wasted over a full year" doing tedious calculations by hand about "so trifling a matter" as hypothetical CO2 concentrations in far-off eras (quoted in Crawford, 1997).