Global Warming and CO2: 1955
This is from the The World We Live In, a coffee table size book published by Life magazine in 1955 and based on a series of science articles published in Life between 1952 and 1954:
Yet for the past century, temperatures have shown an upward trend. This has been particularly true in the last four decades (since 1915- SK), during which glaciers have been in retreat all around the world. The reasons for this gradual warming of the Earth cannot be defined with certainty. Along with water vapor and ozone, carbon dioxide helps to trap the Earth’s heat within the greenhouse of the atmosphere and prevents it from radiating away into space. In the last half century, the carbon dioxide ratio in the atmosphere has increased by 10%, a phenomenon which some attribute to expanding industry, pointing out that six billion tons of carbon dioxide pour from factory chimneys every year. (Emphasis added)
The article also speculates about other possible causes including deforestation and the disturbance of the soil. It wasn’t settled then, but it is now. This has been a serious concern of the scientific community for almost 60 years. The current consensus was not reached lightly. Calls for more research to settle the issue are simply a dishonest smokescreen put up by those who profit from the very dangerous status quo.