{"id":113,"date":"1956-07-01T00:40:15","date_gmt":"1956-07-01T00:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/climatechronology.com\/?p=113"},"modified":"1956-07-01T00:40:15","modified_gmt":"1956-07-01T00:40:15","slug":"plass-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/climatechronology\/1956\/07\/01\/plass-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"Plass&#8217; Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"listing-year\">1956<\/p>\n<p class=\"science-red\">Canadian physicist Gilbert Plass publishes a lucid explanation of \u201ccarbon dioxide theory\u201d to account for \u201cthe general warming of the climate that has taken place in the last sixty years\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-601 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/climatechronology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/575\/2016\/12\/cat_science-fuschia_helvneue.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"162\" height=\"40\" srcset=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/climatechronology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/575\/2016\/12\/cat_science-fuschia_helvneue.jpg 162w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/climatechronology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/575\/2016\/12\/cat_science-fuschia_helvneue-105x26.jpg 105w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 162px) 100vw, 162px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"post-body\">Physicist Gilbert Plass of Johns Hopkins and colleagues publish \u201cThe Carbon Dioxide Theory of Climatic Change,\u201d to account for \u201cthe general warming of the climate that has taken place in the last sixty years\u201d in the journal <em>American Scientist.<\/em> The article questions:\u00a0\u201cWhat is the reason for the recent temperature rise that is found throughout the world? Will this trend toward warmer climates continue for some time? The carbon dioxide theory may provide the answer.\u201d After citing various other theories for warming, Plass notes:\u00a0\u201cAlthough the carbon dioxide theory of climatic change was one of the most widely held fifty years ago, in recent years it has had relatively few adherents.\u00a0However, recent research work suggests that the usual reasons for rejecting this theory are not valid.\u201d Evidence demonstrates that \u201c[t]he infrared absorption properties of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and ozone determine our climate to a large extent.\u00a0Their action has often been compared to that of a greenhouse\u2026 [A]s the amount of carbon dioxide increases\u2026 the outgoing radiation is trapped more effectively near the earth\u2019s surface and the temperature rises.\u00a0The latest calculations show that if the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere should double, the surface temperature would rise 3.6 Celsius&#8230;\u201d\u00a0The article goes on to discuss the impact of fossil fuel combustion: \u00a0\u201cRecently\u2026 man has added an important new factor to the carbon dioxide balance\u2026 [C]ombustion of fossil fuels is adding 6.0 x 10<sup>9<\/sup> tons [tonnes] per year of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere at the present time and the rate is increasing every year.\u00a0Today this factor is larger than any contribution from the inorganic world.\u00a0Thus today man by his own activities is increasing the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at the rate of 30 per cent a century\u2026 Even if there may be some question as to whether or not the general amelioration of the climate in the last fifty years has really been caused by increased industrial activity, there can be no doubt that this will become an increasingly serious problem as the level of industrial activity increases.\u00a0In a few centuries the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere will have become so large that it will have a profound influence on our climate.\u201d<sup>*<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"footnote-body\" style=\"text-align: left\"><sup>*<\/sup>Gilbert N. Plass, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.americanscientist.org\/authors\/detail\/james-rodger-fleming\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James Rodger Fleming<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.americanscientist.org\/authors\/detail\/gavin-schmidt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gavin Schmidt<\/a>, \u201cCarbon Dioxide and the Climate,\u201d <em>American Scientist <\/em>Vol. 44, No. 3 (July 1956):302-316; reprinted in<em> American Scientist, <\/em>January-February 2010<em>, <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/27859450?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">http:\/\/www.americanscientist.org\/issues\/pub\/2010\/1\/carbon-dioxide-and-the-climate\/4<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-credit\">Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skepticalscience.com\/LBJ-climate-1965.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/www.skepticalscience.com\/LBJ-climate-1965.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1956 Canadian physicist Gilbert Plass publishes a lucid explanation of \u201ccarbon dioxide theory\u201d to account for \u201cthe general warming of the climate that has taken place in the last sixty years\u201d Physicist Gilbert Plass of Johns Hopkins and colleagues publish \u201cThe Carbon Dioxide Theory of Climatic Change,\u201d to account for \u201cthe general warming of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1759,"featured_media":371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[13,25,26,68,71,97,105,143],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-20th-century","category-science","tag-american-scientist","tag-carbon-dioxide","tag-carbon-dioxide-theory-of-climate-change","tag-gavin-schmidt","tag-gilbert-plass","tag-james-rodger-fleming","tag-johns-hopkins","tag-plass"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Plass&#039; 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