Uploaded February 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Most major theories about why Earth's global climate warmed and cooled over the last million years were formed by the early 1900s, but it wasn't until the 1970s that scientists began to put all the pieces together in a new, holistic approach to studying the climate system. James Roger Fleming presents a historical perspective on how our understanding of Earth's climate system developed through innovations and discoveries by pioneering scientists in the 1800s and 1900s who asked, and answered, fundamental questions about the causes and effects of global climate change.
Video produced by the Climate.gov team in cooperation with climate and Earth scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies and institutions. Any opinions voiced by people in these videos are their own; they are not official NOAA statements or opinions. Unless specifically stated otherwise, Climate.gov video productions can be freely republished or re-purposed by others.
Most major theories about why Earth's global climate warmed and cooled over the last million years were formed by the early 1900s, but it wasn't until the 1970s that scientists began to put all the pieces together in a new, holistic approach to studying the climate system. James Roger Fleming presents a historical perspective on how our understanding of Earth's climate system developed through innovations and discoveries by pioneering scientists in the 1800s and 1900s who asked, and answered, fundamental questions about the causes and effects of global climate change.
Video produced by the Climate.gov team in cooperation with climate and Earth scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies and institutions. Any opinions voiced by people in these videos are their own; they are not official NOAA statements or opinions. Unless specifically stated otherwise, Climate.gov video productions can be freely republished or re-purposed by others.
