chapter V

1914

WW I-II:

Race

to Arms

World War II

July 1914 - 11 November 1918

World War I

1 September 1939 - 2 September 1945

The shift from chemical weapons to nuclear weapons in war is placing increasing pressure on ecosystems and the environment.

WW I

Start date: 1 September 1939

Fossil fueled

weapons and

vehicles

The war spurned advances in industries and technology. A staggering amount of fossil fuel was being used and burned during the war to power weapons and mobilize vehicles.

Advances in industry and technology have resulted in huge amounts of fossil fuels being used and burned to power weapons and mobilize vehicles during the war.

Crop and vegetation were deliberately removed to gain a strategic advantage. Deforestation has produced large amounts of harmful gases.

Naval ships used in warfare further raise temperature levels by bleeding oil to prevent evaporation and prevent the seas from releasing heat and energy absorbed from the sun.

Cummulative

Effects

By the 1930s, at least one scientist would start to claim that carbon emissions might already be having a warming effect.

British engineer Guy Stewart Callendar noted that the United States and North Atlantic region had warmed significantly on the heels of the Industrial Revolution.

Callendar’s calculations

suggested that a doubling

of CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere

could warm Earth by 2

degrees C (3.6 degrees F).

Callendar’s calculations

suggested that a doubling

of CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere

could warm Earth by 2

degrees C (3.6 degrees F).

He would continue to

argue into the 1960s

that greenhouse-

effect warming of the

planet was underway.

1898

1964

Guy Stewart Callendar

English steam engineer and inventor

While Callendar’s claims were largely met with skepticism, he managed to draw attention to the possibility of global warming

That attention played a part in garnering some of the first government-funded projects to more closely monitor climate and CO2 levels

Climate history

WWI - II