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Eunice Newton Foote, a descendant of Sir Isaac Newton through her father, is believed to be the first scientist to study and conclude that rising carbon dioxide gas levels could raise atmospheric temperatures and impact the earth's climate. Up until 2010, scientists had believed that John Tyndall deserved the credit as the first person to show the involvement of infrared radiation in the greenhouse effect. Although Foote published the results of her experiments as early as 1856, demonstrating the absoprtion of heat by CO2 and water vapor and her hypothesis that changing amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere would alter the climate and despite this being possibly the very first physics publication by an American woman in a scientific journalI wasn't until her work was rediscovered in 2010 that she was recognized as the pioneer that she was.

Eunice Foote was born in Connecticut in 1819 and was a scientists, inventor, mother and women's rights campaigner. After marrying Elisha Foote in 1841, Foote settled in Seneca, where she met and befriended Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was the daughter of Judge Daniel Cady, who was the attorney who had trained Elisha Foote in the law. Although she attended the Rensselaer School and gained a broad education in scientific theory and practice, including laboratory testing, she was denied access to further studies.

From Wikipedia:

Eunice Foote – "Circumstances Affecting the Heat of the Sun's Rays" (1856), American Journal of Science and Arts. Foote recognized the implications of carbon dioxide's heat-capturing properties—the greenhouse effect—for the entire planet.

An amateur scientist, Foote conducted a series of experiments that demonstrated the interactions of sunlight on different gases. She used an air pump, two glass cylinders, and four mercury-in-glass thermometers. In each cylinder, she placed two thermometers and then used the pump to evacuate the air from one cylinder and compress it in the other cylinder. When both cylinders reached equal ambient temperatures, they were placed in the sunlight and temperature variances were measured. She also placed the containers in the shade for comparison and tested the temperature results by dehydrating one cylinder and adding water to the other, to measure the effect of dry versus moist air. Foote noted that the amount of moisture in the air impacted the temperature results. She performed this experiment on air, carbon dioxide (CO₂) (which was called carbonic acid gas in her era), and hydrogen, finding that the tube filled with carbon dioxide became hotter than the others when exposed to sunlight.

She wrote: "The receiver containing this gas became itself much heated—very sensibly more so than the other—and on being removed [from the Sun], it was many times as long in cooling".

Foote noted that CO₂ reached a temperature of 125 °F (52 °C) and that the amount of moisture in the air contributed to temperature variances. In connection with the history of the Earth, Foote theorized that "An atmosphere of that gas would give to our earth a high temperature; and if, as some suppose, at one period of its history, the air had mixed with it a larger proportion than at present, an increased temperature from its own action, as well as from increased weight, must have necessarily resulted." Her theory was a clear statement of climatic warming caused by increased levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere.

Foote described her findings in a paper, "Circumstances Affecting the Heat of the Sun's Rays", that she submitted for the tenth annual AAAS meeting, held on August 23, 1856, in Albany, New York. For reasons that are unclear, Foote did not read her paper to those present—women were in principle allowed to speak publicly at the conference—and her paper was instead presented by Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian Institution. Henry introduced Foote's paper by stating "Science was of no country and of no sex. The sphere of woman embraces not only the beautiful and the useful, but the true". Yet, he discounted her findings in the New-York Daily Tribune article about the presentation, saying "although the experiments were interesting and valuable, there were [many] [difficulties] encompassing [any] attempt to interpret their significance".

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Sources:

Wikipedia: Eunice Newton Foote
BBVA OpenMind: Eunice Newton Foote, the Forgotten Pioneer of the Greenhouse Effect, Mar. 8, 2022

Published by editor in Brilliant thinkers, Carbon emissions, Climate change, History Timeline, History-making, Nuclear innovation, Nuclear R&D, Scientific debate, Women in Nuclear, WOMEN IN NUCLEAR GRID

James Hansen, Kerry Emanuel, Ken Caldeira and Tom Wigley co-authored an article entitled Nuclear power paves the only viable path forward on climate change, that was published by The Guardian during the Paris COP. In it, they argue that "to solve the climate problem, policy must be based on facts and not prejudice. Alongside renewables, Nuclear will make the difference between the world missing crucial climate targets or achieving them."

Each of these venerable climate scientists has reknown expertise in an area of climate science and none are associated even loosely with the nuclear industry. Yet, perhaps by virtue of their ability to crunch the numbers, calculate quantities and evaluate trend lines, they see the writing on the wall. By any measure, they could have titled this article "The Other Inconvenient Truth: We need nuclear power."

It is a rare thing and for that reason, almost shocking, that four such respected scientists would put their names to a call for a particular solution, because scientists too often consider themselves mere interpreters of data. In this case, their interpretations of the data compelled these scientists to step out of their comfort zone to clarify what the data calls for: the bigger clean energy guns nuclear power provides.

This article inspired a legion of pronuclear activists. Until this time, almost no one was out there pounding the pavement in support of nuclear energy. But the fact that the same scientist who opened the nation's eyes to the threat posed by carbon emissions back in 1986, whose testimony to a Congressional committee effectively initated the process by which the United Nations launched the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, called for politicians to recognize nuclear's critical role, made a major shift in the dynamics for nuclear power.

At the same time, many environmental groups, finding this message just too inconvenient, tragically opted simply to discard this guidance. Many, contrary to their avowed assertion that they care to address climate change, have even continued working to prematurely shutter existing nuclear and allow natural gas to mushroom instead.

“To solve the climate problem, policy must be based on facts and not on prejudice. The climate system cares about greenhouse gas emissions – not about whether energy comes from renewable power or abundant nuclear power. Some have argued that it is feasible to meet all of our energy needs with renewables. The 100% renewable scenarios downplay or ignore the intermittency issue by making unrealistic technical assumptions, and can contain high levels of biomass and hydroelectric power at the expense of true sustainability. Large amounts of nuclear power would make it much easier for solar and wind to close the energy gap.

The climate issue is too important for us to delude ourselves with wishful thinking. Throwing tools such as nuclear out of the box constrains humanity’s options and makes climate mitigation more likely to fail. We urge an all-of-the-above approach that includes increased investment in renewables combined with an accelerated deployment of new nuclear reactors."

Please read the full article published more than five years ago in The Guardian, Nuclear power paves the only viable path forward on climate change, by Drs. James Hansen, Kerry Emanuel, Ken Caldeira and Tom Wigley, published December 3, 2015.

Published by Nucleation Capital in Brilliant thinkers, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Climate mayhem, International support for nuclear, LINKS, Nuclear innovation