By Sanaa Mahmud, Research Team Member
Climate change has been a pressing issue for the past few decades, yet there are many who don’t believe in the science behind it. In actuality, we’ve had evidence of climate change for over 160 years, thanks to Eunice Newton Foote. This American “amateur” scientist was only recently acknowledged as a pioneer in climate research, as her discoveries predated the well-known experiments of John Tyndall, the man who coined the term “greenhouse effect”.
Eunice Newton Foote. Art by Catherine Kwon.
Eunice Newton Foote was born in Connecticut in 1819 and grew up in New York State, where she attended the first institution of higher education for women in the United States. She was interested in science, mathematics, philosophy, and languages. During her adult life, Foote began conducting experiments in her home laboratory. In 1856, she filled glass cylinders with various gases and placed them in the sun, then measured the temperature of each cylinder with a mercury thermometer. She found that the heating effect of the sun was more significant in moist air than in dry air, and most significantly, heating was highest in the cylinders that had carbon dioxide in them. Foote concluded that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes the planet to get warmer. This important insight into the effects of carbon dioxide on the Earth’s climate came three years before John Tyndall, the man who is widely acknowledged for the discovery of the greenhouse gas effect, even began his more complicated experiments.
Foote wrote a paper on her findings in 1857 titled “Circumstances affecting the heat of the Sun’s rays”, which was published in the American Journal of Science. Her findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) - not by her, but by a male colleague, as it was uncommon for women to be members or speak at these meetings. After this, Foote’s work went unnoticed for many years, as the world revered John Tyndall and other male climate scientists for their contributions to climate research. It was not until 2011, when an amateur historian named Ray Sorenson accidentally came across her work. While flipping through The Annual of Scientific Discovery of 1857, a sort of yearbook for scientific findings, he found an entry about Foote’s experiments and findings. He realized she had proved the greenhouse effect at least three years before John Tyndall. Since then, Eunice Newton Foote has been acknowledged for her groundbreaking contributions, but is still nowhere near a household name.
Foote’s passions extended beyond science, as she was also involved in social justice and feminist activism. In 1848, Foote was present at the first woman's rights convention in New York. Her name was fifth on the Declaration of Sentiments, a document demanding equality for women in legal rights, such as the right to vote, and social status. Her story shows the struggles for equality and recognition that women in science have faced throughout history, as well as stresses the importance for women’s rights to this day. It also serves as a reminder that the effects of carbon dioxide on our planet were demonstrated over 160 years ago. We owe Eunice Newton Foote our recognition, as her important findings remain relevant to this day.