The fight against climate change is much older than you might think, with the seed of modern climate science snaking its way through the annals of academic history to a name you might not have even heard of: Eunice Newton Foote.
Foote was a women's rights activist. She was the first woman to be published in a physics journal. She hypothesized what would later be the general public's leading touchstone for measuring climate change. She was also born — perhaps shockingly — in 1819.
Most importantly, Foote's work is strong proof that we've long known the Earth's climate is sensitive to human actions. Foote's 1856 paper "Circumstances Affecting the Heat of Sun’s Rays" laid the foundation for much of our modern concept of atmospheric warming, as she theorized that changes in carbon dioxide could affect the Earth's temperature. Three years later, scientist John Tyndall would be credited for laying the groundwork of climate science. Foote's research was largely ignored during the more than 100 years following her death, until the scientific community began recognizing her early contributions in the 2010s.
All that to say, it might be in the best interest of those viewing the Google homepage on July 17 to click on the brightly-colored illustration. On what would have been her 204th birthday, the 19th-century scientist is being recognized for her role in defining climate science as we know it, highlighting the prescient work and those who continue her legacy today.
Google's homepage Doodle, which depicts Foote at work with the two glass cylinders she used to experiment heating carbon dioxide, takes users to a short video on her achievements and a Google blog written by Kate Brandt, Google's chief sustainability officer. In addition to Foote, current actors are also getting the spotlight today, as the company announced dedicated funding and support to six women leaders in the field of climate science and preservation.
"These innovators are working to educate the public, building solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change, and advocating for policies that will help protect our planet," Brandt wrote.
Those honored include: Dr. Anna Liljedahl, an associate scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center studying the effects of climate change on the Arctic ecosystem; Clara Rowe, CEO of restoration and conservation data network Restor; Dr. Alysia Garmulewicz and Liz Corbin, co-founders of open-source regenerative materials organization Materiom; Heidi Binko, founder of the Just Transition Fund; and Angie Fyfe, executive director of ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability USA.
"The restoration of nature has incredible potential for climate, biodiversity and people," wrote Rowe. "In order to unlock that potential, you really need to bring together everyone involved in that work, ensure that more people can get involved and that we have a transparent view of what's happening where."
The company's philanthropic arm, Google.org, is already behind many of these projects, including the open-source networks of Restor and Materiom, as well as the ICLEI USA Action Fund.
It's also committing another $5 million to Liljedahl and the Woodwell Research Center specifically, to support the organization's three-year deployment of an AI technology to track arctic permafrost thaw in near-real-time for the first time.
The melting of global permafrost presents a lot of uncertainty in climate research, with thawing ice releasing microbes, gases, and more into our atmosphere. Knowledge of this melt is especially relevant as extreme weather and climate-related disasters escalate. Through its Permafrost Discovery Gateway (PDG), Woodwell has already made steps in visualizing thaw trends.
"As the Arctic warms at nearly four times the global rate, permafrost — or ground that has remained below zero degrees Celsius for at least two consecutive years — that underlies much of the region is thawing rapidly, causing widespread ground collapse and infrastructure damage, threatening Arctic communities, and releasing carbon into the atmosphere," Woodwell explained in a statement.
"This funding from Google.org will help us unlock completely new technological capabilities in how we do science and, ultimately, what science itself can do," said Liljedahl.
The grant is part of the Google.org fellowship and its Impact Challenge on Climate Innovation, a $30-million commitment to fund large-scale projects that accelerate technological advances in climate information and action.
"I'm not sure that Eunice Newton Foote could have imagined what technology would look like today," said Liljedahl, "but I do think she would have been proud to see how many women are now leading the way in protecting our planet through climate science and exploration."
Topics Google Social Good
