ASHRAE Journal - August 2023 - 19

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
prior to 1889 where she hypothesized that changing
amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere
would alter the climate. Her papers were presented to
the scientifi c community by a male colleague, however,
for reasons unknown today.
Foote died in 1888 and for almost a hundred years her
contributions were lost. However, recently it was realized
that her work predated discoveries made by other
scientists by fi ve years, making her the rightful fi rst
vocal climate change advocate.
I, for one, am excited to know that the
rightful fi rst voice of climate concerns came
from a woman. I've often found myself
wondering what it was like to be a scientist
and a female in the 1880s. I know what it
was like to be an engineer and a female in
the 1980s-a scant 100-year difference in
time between Ms. Foote's career and the
start of my own career.
While women in scientifi c fi elds had
made signifi cant strides from the 1880s
to the 1980s, there were still challenges
for women in our industry. I've been
a consulting engineer since I graduated from college
and started my career in 1986. Personally, the biggest
challenge in my career came shortly after the birth of
my second daughter when my boss at the time told me
that I needed to decide if I was going to be a full-time
mother or a full-time engineer. Career and parenthood
are not mutually exclusive choices so, clearly, I didn't
have to decide between one or the other, but I did need
to understand what I needed to do to succeed as both.
I accepted this challenge, and this decision took the
shape of my leaving that company and starting my own
business-26 years ago-and now, my business competes
with my old company.
Our industry has come a long way-and even further
since the 1980s-in terms of gender acceptance, recruitment
and recognition. I can see a day when " being a
woman " in this industry will not be an anomaly, but will
be the norm, with equal representation among genders.
Diversity, equity and inclusion are more than mere buzz
phrases for our Society. ASHRAE has accepted the challenge
of addressing inequities, embracing our diversity
and empowering all of our members to have a voice.
I'm sure I'm not the only one that has faced an
individual challenge, but now it's time to address our
MY BUSINESS STARTED 26 YEARS AGO and has now grown
to compete with my former company. My kids and I love getting out and
hiking as shown here.
collective challenges.
Even today, after signing the Paris Climate Agreement
and with the heightened focus on being climate aware,
and along with the catastrophic climate events that we
are witnessing routinely, the world still has a strong
appetite for fossil fuels, which are a major contributor
to greenhouse gas emissions. And this is not going to
end overnight. Each year, humans across the globe emit
more than 35 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere by
burning fossil fuels.
A video from NASA (tinyurl.com/JournalExtras) shows
the global accumulation of CO2 over the course of one
year and how it moved across the globe between June
2020 and July 2021. While seasons greatly affect the
absorption of CO2, there is no question that we have an
excess of this gas on our planet.
Don't get me wrong-fossil fuels are a necessary energy
source until we can make a clean-energy transition.
Until our power grids can sustain increased electrical
loading and be dependable during natural disasters.
A U G U S T 2 0 2 3 ashrae.o rg ASHRAE JOURNAL
19
http://tinyurl.com/JournalExtras https://ashrae.org/
ASHRAE Journal - August 2023

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