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The Climate Question

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Why we find it so hard to save our own planet, and how we might change that.

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The Climate Question: How did we discover climate change?

Magazines & Reviews

09/04/2023 GMT

How did we discover climate change?

BBC World Service - The Climate Question, How did we discover climate change?

We recreate the first experiment linking carbon dioxide to a warmer earth.

In 1856, an American woman called Eunice Foote made the link between carbon dioxide and a warming planet. We recreate her experiment and ask: did history forget her?

In 1856, an American woman called Eunice Newton Foote discovered that higher levels of carbon dioxide would warm the planet. But credit for discovering climate change was given to someone else who made the same discovery three years later.
  
We celebrate Foote’s role in early climate science by recreating her little-known experiment and asking if there are some voices that continue to be overlooked in climate science today – and how we overcome these climate blind spots?

Presenter Graihagh Jackson is joined by: 
Dr Alice Bell, Head of Climate and Health Policy at Wellcome and author of ‘Our Biggest Experiment – An Epic History of the Climate Crisis’ 
Professor Regina Rodrigues, Professor of Physical Oceanography and Climate at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianopolis, Brazil. 
Professor Andrea Sella, Professor of Chemistry at University College London. 
Producer: Louise Parry 
Researcher: Louise Byrne 
Series Producer: Alex Lewis 
Editor: Richard Vadon 
Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot
 
Email us: theclimatequestion@bbc.com

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