For at least 70 years, the fossil fuel industry has been aware of — and, in fact, funded — research showing that their products would cause climate crises and global warming, newly uncovered documents have revealed.
I just learned about Eunice Foote yesterday. We’ve known about it since 1856!
Kind of.
John Tyndalls independent discoveries in 1859 generally laid out the concept of the greenhouse effect - how these substances can create a cycle that lead to increasing temperatures. This was built on understandings of works nearly a hundred years earlier around how the sun and atmosphere propagate heat.
Eunice’s works work was more that an atmosphere made up of this gas would be hotter than our present.
Basically her discoveries fell to obscurity and are more of an interesting historical footnote. Tyndalls directly lead to what we know today and is part of an evolutionary chain of understanding.
Sweet. Fine them for 70 years of knowingly contributing to air pollution and climate damage.
Sue them.
Nationalize them.
That works.
We can’t do that; it might harm The Economy. Best we can do is a stern scolding and a gentleman’s agreement to not do it again.
