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Interested in Climate Change? Siglrr UP 10 receive OUir iirr -r elpth jaauimr .- Ihsm x:7b<..rUI dhirnc!rote change around the oir..rrlld. SIGN UP If the science were brand new, that might make sense, but climate scientists have been making predictions since the end of the 19th century. This is the acid test of any scientific theory: Does it make predictions that ultimately come true? ADVER71 ISFMFNI relativity predicted that gravity would cause light to bend. It sounded crazy, but a solar eclipse in 1919 provided the opportunity to test it as starlight passed near the blotted -out sun. Einstein's theory was proved, turning him into a celebrity overnight. When medicine delivered a wave of vaccines in the loth century, doctors predicted that widespread use would cause childhood deaths from illnesses like whooping cough and diphtheria to fall. The public trusted the doctors, and those deaths plummeted. So what predictions has climate science made, and have they come true? The earliest, made by a Swede named. ;viar2Le; fr12e r2 i Ll , in 1897, was simply that the;;waa1.a, would heat up in response to emissions. That has been proved: The global average temperature has risen more than 1 degree Celsius, or almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit, a substantial change for a whole planet. By the 196os and'70s, climate scientists were making more detailed predictions. They said that as the surface of the Earth warmed, the temperature in the highest reaches of the atmosphere would fall. That is exactly what happened.