A U.N. conference in Copenhagen next month is due to agree a new pact to combat global warming after mounting evidence that human activity is disrupting the climate. The following is a timeline of the discovery of global warming. 300 BC – Theophrastus, a student of Greek philosopher Aristotle, documents that human activity can affect [...]

Timeline —5 Billion Years Ago: Planet Earth forms  —10,000 years ago: Last Ice Age ends —1500-1850: Little Ice Age occurs, temperatures in Northern Hemisphere drop by approximately 1 degree Celsius, triggering disease and famine. —Mid-1700s: Industrial Revolution begins and manual labor-based economy is replaced by industry and coal-burning machinery. —1824: French mathematician and physicist Joseph [...]