Mastodawn

Dekinblus Feb 11, 2023

Sheril Kirshenbaum

Physicist John Tyndall is often credited w discovering the greenhouse effect, which he wrote about in 1859.

But female scientist Eunice Foote published a paper - 3yrs earlier - demonstrating how atmospheric water vapor & CO2 affected solar heating. She theorized that heat trapping gases in Earth’s atmosphere warm its #climate.

Tyndall was widely read. And Foote, being a woman, wasn't even permitted to present her own work.
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/features/happy-200th-birthday-eunice-foote-hidden-climate-science-pioneer #history #science #ClimateChange #HistoryRemix

Happy 200th birthday to Eunice Foote, hidden climate science pioneer

American Eunice Foote was an amateur scientist and women's rights pioneer from the mid-1800s whose experiments foreshadowed the discovery of Earth's greenhouse effect.

NOAA Climate.gov

Sheril Kirshenbaum Feb 11, 2023

* It's worth noting Tyndall wrote that this field of study was completely unexplored, claiming he was 1st to publish anything on the subject.

There are varying accounts of whether Foote was permitted to present her work in 1956. What we know is 1) a man did it for her & 2) many thought women were incapable of contributing in science.

Also, Foote's background is fascinating & deserves further reading. She was an advocate for women's rights & involved in many historical events in US history. /2

Stefan Urbat Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril I am always citing Foote's work when talking about (history of) climate change (research) #climatecrisis

KathrynLaskey Feb 11, 2023

@Stefan_Urbat @Sheril thank you!

Greg Wellman Feb 11, 2023

@Stefan_Urbat @Sheril Do you cite them as footenotes?

(sorry, had to)

Stegosaurus Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril Without knowing more about Tyndall, and because Foote's work was suppressed and denigrated, he may have truly looked and not found her. Scientific standards of physics were not quite as high then as they are today. *sigh* I wish I could say the same for the "social sciences."

Martin Vermeer FCD Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril Joseph Fourier wrote about heat transport through the atmosphere even earlier than both. With a bit of good will one could claim that he described the greenhouse effect, though not referring to any atmospheric gases.

Michael Busch Feb 12, 2023

@martinvermeer @Sheril Fourier described the basic physics.

Foote was the first to measure the greenhouse warming due to H2O and CO2.

Do not diminish her work.

Aeries Feb 12, 2023

@Sheril Interesting... History could have a lot of Foote's buried in itself.. Only a fraction of a fraction lucky enough like Tyndell were recognised.

Aswath Rao Mar 2, 2023

Grumpy Penguin 🇦🇺 🇮🇱 🕯️Feb 11, 2023

I am sure I heard a podcast about her...

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sciencefriction/eunice-foote/9990850

The father of climate science, my Foote!? A mystery revealed - ABC Radio National

You won't believe your ears. A hidden herstory in the history of science.

ABC Radio National

tone1928 Feb 11, 2023

@GrumpyPenguin @Sheril Thanks for the ABC article. It’s amazing that such a brilliantly straight forward (accessible) experiment can demonstrate the effect of different gases.

Klaus Alexander Seiﬆrup Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril Junior Woodchucks' Guidebook has a lot to say about this remarkable woman.

The article starts with

> Eunice Newton Foote (July 17, 1819 – September 30, 1888) was an American scientist, inventor, and women's rights campaigner. She was the first scientist to conclude that certain gases warmed when exposed to sunlight, and that rising carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels would change atmospheric temperature and could impact climate.

Read it all:
🔗 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunice_Newton_Foote

Eunice Newton Foote - Wikipedia

Stegosaurus Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril This is very interesting in so many ways. The wiki seems quite good. I'd like to know more about her. Thank you.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunice_Newton_Foote

Eunice Newton Foote - Wikipedia

Kp Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril http://blackflyzone.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-king-of-r-jacquees.html

The King of R&B jacquees

The Heat Is Real: Jacquees' Newest Release Sincerely For You R&B music lovers have been blessed with the soulful sounds of Jacquees lately,...

Alexander Spassoff Feb 11, 2023

Terry Brooks Photography Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril
Yet the latest geological studies of deep ice now show that a CO2 increase historically follows temperature rises and not the other way around

Dave Byrne Feb 12, 2023

@photo @Sheril Come on… This is well known and well understood. Its a part of the normal feedback cycles of the atmosphere. Where as today it is a driver of warming because we are dumping so much CO2 in the atmosphere. It is not some gotcha point that every one else has overlooked.

Terry Brooks Photography Feb 12, 2023

@davebyrne @Sheril
Welcome to the new global religion

Dave Byrne Feb 14, 2023

@photo @Sheril Just science based on empirical evidence. No faith required.

Terry Brooks Photography Feb 14, 2023

@davebyrne @Sheril Odd isn't it how one set of empirical evidence can be in conflict with another, but that's science for you.
"Climate science" seems to bear some remarkable similarities with religions throughout history.

Dave Byrne Feb 14, 2023

@photo @Sheril In what respect?
Fourier’s maths, Eunice Foote and John Tyndall’s spectrography? Keeling’s measurements of gas concentrations? Mann’s Paleoclimate temperature measurements? My personal observations of Alpine glaciers? Which would you say have common properties with religion?

Terry Brooks Photography Feb 15, 2023

@davebyrne @Sheril
You realise you're proving my point right?

Pampa Feb 11, 2023

Not Tyndall and not Foote. 35 years earlier there was Joseph Fourier.

The article you link to conveniently doesn't mention Fourier.

J. Fourier
Remarques générales sur les températures du globe terrestre et des espaces planétaires
Ann. Chim. Phys.
(1824)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160932799012107

https://www.climate-policy-watcher.org/global-climate-2/fourier-joseph-17681830.html

Dave Byrne Feb 12, 2023

@Pampa @Sheril Where as we all know Heddy Lamar the actress and film star invented WiFi!!

Groms Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril #watervapor i indeed an important and overlooked? Component for #globalwarming

꧁𝐌💙𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐍꧂Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril #HERstory

msgbi Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril @charles_ex

Reino 🍋Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril #InternationalDayOfWomenAndGirlsInScience

Kim Possible Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril I'm convinced that this is the case in every important event/deed/discovery. We need to find and lift up all the names, in addition to Eunice Foote:

Virginia Hall, WWII spy
Rosalind Franklin, DNA
Dorothy Horstmann, polio vaccine
Hedy Lamarr, wireless communications (radio guidance)
Alice Ball, leprosy cure
Vera Rubin, discoverer of Dark Matter
Dr. Grace Murray Hopper, first computer programming language
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, discoverer of Pulsars (neuron stars)
Lise Meitner, nuclear fission
Dr. Chieng-Shiung Wu, Manhattan project, overthrew a previously accepted law of physics
Anna Arnold Hedgeman, organized March on Washington
Katherine Johnson, guidance and navigation calculations for NASA
Nettie Stevens, discoverer of gene-determined biological sex

hramrach Feb 11, 2023

@kimlockhartga Neuron stars 🙃

ruthlessone Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril so many women who contributed so much to humanity have been ignored and diminished .. glad folks are putting more of these women’s work out for all to learn about … thanks

Doug Grinbergs Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril
Eunice Foote Wikipedia article is rather lengthy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunice_Newton_Foote

Especially on International Day of Women and Girls in Science, I encourage regular folks to consider contributing content to Wikipedia articles, maybe even start a new one for a notable but overlooked woman in science.

For future reference, this site has info about Wikipedia edit-a-thons
https://500womenscientists.org/wikipedia-editathon

Happy #IDoWaGiS! ✌️

Eunice Newton Foote - Wikipedia

@energiepirat Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril What about Svante Arrhenius in Sweden?

Greg Wellman Feb 11, 2023

@energiepirat @Sheril Arrhenius came along later. He was the first (I think!) to suggest that mankind could change the climate via increasing CO2. Foote (and Tyndall) were the first to describe the effect of (mostly naturally occurring at the time!) CO2, and water vapor(*). Fourier ... see Martin Vermeer's response https://defcon.social/@martinvermeer@fediscience.org/109845728811518669

(*) While water is a potent greenhouse gas, it's also purely an amplifying feedback. It's effectively impossible to change its concentration in isolation.

Martin Vermeer FCD (@[email protected])

@[email protected] Joseph Fourier wrote about heat transport through the atmosphere even earlier than both. With a bit of good will one could claim that he described the greenhouse effect, though not referring to any atmospheric gases.

FediScience.org

@energiepirat Feb 12, 2023

@gfwellman @Sheril 999% correct. No objections. Public and published opinions here in 🇩🇪 is far, far away from recognizing this facts. How about your countries?

Greg Wellman Feb 12, 2023

@energiepirat Recognizing which facts - the relatively long history of climate science, or the significant under-crediting of women in science history in general? In 🇨🇦 and 🇺🇸 I'd say the general public knows hardly anything about either.
I've spent some time studying climate science and I hadn't heard of Foote until this post by @Sheril ☹️.

@energiepirat Feb 13, 2023

@gfwellman @Sheril Both kind of facts. The ignorance towards female intelligence and their finding makes it even worse. But don't be afraid: Conservative "believers" denying science exist as well as male and female human beings. Look at Palin, Thatcher, Hernandez de Kirchner, Truss, Le Pen, Merkel (a scientist in physics herself=) ignoring climate change and abusing the buzzword for her personal Marketing: She made Media call her Klima-Kanzlerin in 2005.

Kars Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril
Excellent article

Lstn2urmama Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril ..some will still try do so if they can get away taking someone else's credit...

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril I didn’t know this. Thank you.

LorenAmelang Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril Another podcast with this story:
https://overcast.fm/+6fwoaZdL0
Eunice Foote: A Once Forgotten Climate Science Pioneer
INITIAL CONDITIONS: A PHYSICS HISTORY PODCAST
JUL 20, 2022 ⋅ 49:34

Eunice Foote: A Once Forgotten Climate Science Pioneer — Initial Conditions: A Physics History Podcast

Britstralian Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril I have long wondered about this! How does it fit in with Joseph Fourier's paper from the early 1830s??

Louee Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril nevertheless she persisted.

Ian Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril she is the person I mention if I want to express how long we’ve had knowledge of the impact of co2

Renée Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril every time I see handwringing about STEM pipeline and how women "just aren't interested in science or they'd have been there by now" I get infuriated all over again. Just because you didn't see us doesn't mean we weren't there.

CherylBlueWave Feb 11, 2023

She sounds remarkable.

Thank you so much for posting about her.

Deanna Gilbert Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril I propose this kind of thing be called “manclaiming”.

Also see Rosalind Franklin (DNA) and Jocelyn Bell Burrell (pulsars).

Sheril Kirshenbaum Feb 12, 2023

https://mastodon.social/@Sheril/109528549109082379

Gen Giggles Feb 11, 2023

@Sheril Another instance of manclaiming.

SabreToothTigress/ZenDragoness Feb 12, 2023

@Sheril Please Sheril, accept my thanks for bringing me that knowledge.

Sane Thinker Feb 12, 2023

@Sheril Every intelligent woman that is repressed is a loss for everyone.

JenSki Scotland European EU Feb 12, 2023

@Sheril the book Remarkable Creatures shows a similar thing happening in the field of archaeology and fossils

Olena Feb 12, 2023

Excellent artwork by Carlyn Iverson

Pell Silversmith Feb 12, 2023

@Sheril It's really sad how often this kind of thing happened.

Lorian Taylor Feb 12, 2023

@Sheril
Sooooo typical!!!

Doug Bostrom Feb 12, 2023

More below.

@SkepticalScience did a revision due to this. Credit where credit is due!

https://www.chemistryworld.com/culture/eunice-foote-the-mother-of-climate-change/4011315.article#/

https://skepticalscience.com/history-climate-science.html

Eunice Foote: the mother of climate change

The first person to link carbon dioxide to atmospheric warming has almost been forgotten. Rachel Brazil uncovers her story

Chemistry World

Atheist Art Feb 12, 2023

Some things have changed for the better. These days Eunice Foote would be a leader in most places. Possibly even here in the US of A.