April 09, 2023

How did we discover climate change?

27 minutes

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: [email protected]

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