Why is 2024 an important year for climate science?

Written By Ada Innovate

Ada Innovate, London, United Kingdom

E-mail: info@adainnovate.com

Ada Innovate is dedicated to promoting science and technology for improving the planet and those who live on it. As part of this, we are celebrating 200 years since the concept of the greenhouse effect was first introduced in 1824. We are organising an international conference in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, to discuss the latest advances in climate science and greenhouse effects.

The year 2024 stands as an important year for climate science as it is marked by a number of noteworthy developments. Below, we explore the key reasons that make this year so profound in the field of climate science. 

(1) The 300th anniversary of the invention of the mercury thermometer and the introduction of the standard temperature scale (Fahrenheit)

This year commemorates the 300th anniversary of the invention of the mercury thermometer by Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736) and his introduction of the standard temperature scale (Fahrenheit), which is named after him. This marks an important development in climate science as it enabled the precise measurement of temperature.

Another discovery of Fahrenheit in 1724 was the supercooling of water. This is the phenomenon where water does not solidify even below its normal freezing point. A good example of this is clouds, at high altitudes, which are supercooled droplets of water.

Fahrenheit was born in Gdansk in 1686 and died in The Hague in 1736. No reliable likeness of Fahrenheit exists. However, a team of scientists from Poland, led by Jerzy Proficz from the Gdansk University of Technology, have created a computer-generated portrait of Fahrenheit by using images of his relatives.

(2)  200th anniversary of the greenhouse effect

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the introduction of the scientific phenomenon that is currently called the “greenhouse effect”. Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768–1830) was a French scientist born in Auxerre. He reasoned that the temperature of the earth will be far colder without the existence of an atmosphere that acts to raise the planet's surface temperature. Joseph Fourier stated in 1824 that "the temperature [of the Earth] can be augmented by the interposition of the atmosphere, because heat in the state of light finds less resistance in penetrating the air, than in repassing into the air when converted into non-luminous heat". He is generally credited as being the first person to propose the idea of the greenhouse effect.

Joseph Fourier (1768–1830) realised that the Earth's atmosphere retains heat radiation and is generally credited with the discovery of the greenhouse effect.

Joseph Fourier’s hypothesis of the greenhouse effect was later experimentally proven by Eunice Newton Foote. Foote (1819–1888) was an American scientist, inventor, and women’s rights campaigner who conducted a number of experiments in her home laboratory that demonstrated the greenhouse effect. Foote theorised that higher carbon dioxide would result in a warmer planet. In her 1856 paper entitled “Circumstances Affecting the Heat of the Sun’s Rays”, Foote described what we know as the greenhouse effect: “An atmosphere of that gas [i.e., carbon dioxide] would give to our earth a high temperature”. 

Eunice Newton Foote (1819–1888) showed in 1856 that carbon dioxide is the gas which traps the heat of the sun.

Several years after Eunice Newton Foote, the Irish physicist, John Tyndall (1820–1893), carried out a more sophisticated experiment to demonstrate the physical basis of the greenhouse effect. The following statement by Tyndall nicely describes the key to climate change: “As a dam built across a river causes a local deepening of the stream, so our atmosphere, thrown as a barrier across the terrestrial rays, produces a local heightening of the temperature at the Earth's surface.”

John Tyndall (1820–1893) experimentally demonstrated the physical basis of the greenhouse effect.

(3) 70th anniversary of the invention of the first practical solar cell

This year is also the 70th anniversary of a major technological advance in climate science when scientists from Bell Labs in the USA invented the first practical solar cells, which convert sunlight into electricity. Three scientists are credited with the invention: Calvin S. Fuller, Daryl Chapin, and Gerald Pearson.

Calvin Souther Fuller (1902–1994) co-invented the first practical solar cell.

(4) 50th anniversary of the development of the first building that was exclusively heated and powered by solar and wind power

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the development of the first building that was exclusively heated and powered by solar and wind power. It was built in New Mexico (USA) by James Tennant Baldwin (1933–2018) of Integrated Living Systems.  

James Tennant Baldwin (1933–2018) co-developed the world’s first building to be exclusively heated and powered by solar and wind power.

(5) 30th anniversary of the first climate change legislation

2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the first international treaty, established to limit emissions of greenhouse gases and to prevent climate change, which entered into force in 1994. It is called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and 197 countries signed the treaty. 

Logo of the UNFCCC

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