The majority of the climate science today is conducted using sensors, satellites and computer models. It all began by using two tubes of glass.
“A woman, around one hundred years ago, employed an extremely simple experiment setup comprising two glass tubes two thermometers and an air pump – to prove that when the carbon dioxide is added into the atmosphere, it warms it up. This is a fundamental physics concept,” says Annarita Mariotti who is a climate scientist and program director for Modeling Analyzing, Predictions, as well as Projections for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
Eunice Foote, the scientist who was the brain behind that glass tube experiment has not been mentioned in the historical books. Up until about 10 years ago, John Tyndall was seen as the father of climate science, for laying the groundwork for knowledge of greenhouse gases influence. But the study of Foote, conducted three years before, proved that air with higher levels of “carbonic acid” also known as carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide, heated up more quickly and cooled more slowly than normal air.
“She actually performed some truly significant work before John Tyndall even got going. Why was she the mother of climate science who was basically erased from the histories?” asks Katharine Wilkinson who is an expert in climate science and the director-general of The All We Can Save Project. “Some of the anger is that her tale is relevant in the present, and that there are too many women who are doing crucial work that is either under the radar, or gets ignored.”
The study of Foote was fairly straightforward. Through a series of tests she used two glass containers filled with air and would then pump various gasses , including water vapor and carbon dioxide in one. Then, she would place the containers outside in the sun to check how quickly they warmed up and then cool down in shade.
Her work was showcased in 1856 at the annual gathering of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This was the first project that was done by a woman have her work presented to the gathering, however, she was not the one to present the talk herself. Instead, it was authored by a physicist who was the one of the first secretaries for the Smithsonian, Joseph Henry.
However, Foote did not just lead in the area of climate science. Mariotti states, “She opened doors for women in science as well as generally a greater representation of women in the sciences … Her research didn’t possess the qualifications of a Ph.D. and didn’t have an advanced experimental equipment. Yet she was able to do it.”
Foote was an innovator in many different ways. The first female within the United States to publish papers on physics. She also fought for women’s rights in the absence of academics. Foote played a role in the initiation of the Seneca Falls Convention, which was the first time women’s suffrage gained momentum within the U.S. “There was an interconnectedness, perhaps, in her way of thinking throughout every aspect of her existence,” Wilkinson says. “If we’re not bringing critical lenses to comprehend the fundamental causes of this climate catastrophe, and if we’re not taking critical lenses to understand the need to incorporate equality and justice into the solutions to climate change it’s unlikely that we’ll achieve a positive outcome … There are early roots of that in Eunice’s life story too.”
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