Jul 30, 2017 · 1 min read
I believe the industrial revolution was from 1760–1840 which means even before 1950 humanity was releasing CO2 by burning coal in large quantities.
I’m not sure of the dates on the industrial revolution, but CO2 emissions were comparatively slow before 1950, and I think I’ve heard scientists say that anthropogenic climate change before 19-something was caused primarily by “land use” (which is not a very specific term) rather than combustion. After all, electricity and vehicles weren’t popular until at least the 1920s, and even then only in the most industrialized countries.
You can see here how CO2 use surged in the 1950s and 1960s, even when CO2 is plotted logarithmically:

