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The greenhouse effect was first proposed by Joseph Fourier in 1824, though it was not called that at the time. Claude Pouillet gathered evidence for this effect between 1827-1838, and John Tyndall was the first to measure infrared absorption and emission of various gases and vapors. By 1859, it was known that Earth's greenhouse effect was caused by a very small portion of the atmosphere - mostly water vapor, but also hydrocarbons and CO2.
The effect was more quantified in 1896 by Svante Arrhenius, who made the first quantitative global warming prediction.
(The term was first coined by Nils Gustaf Ekholm in 1901.)
We've actually had someone figure out that carbon dioxide traps heat over a century ago1, yet people still think it isn't real or somehow doesn't apply to Earth. Some people also think that we shouldn't do anything about it because they believe humanity is not responsible, as if that makes it not our problem.