Eunice Newton Foote

NOAA CEE/illustration by Carlyn Iverson

“An atmosphere of that gas [carbon dioxide] 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 as present, an increased temperature from its own action as well as from increased weight must have necessarily resulted.”

Eunice Foote, "Circumstances affecting the Heat of the Sun’s Rays,” 
​American Journal of Science and Arts 22 (November 1856): 383

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Eunice Newton Foote (1819–1888) conducted early experiments about the effect of the sun’s heat on gases. She was the first to suggest that changing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would change Earth’s air temperature. A male colleague presented her paper “Circumstances affecting the Heat of the Sun’s Rays” to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1856. Foote was one of the first female members of AAAS. She was also a women’s rights activist who attended the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848.

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