Climate experts say that Foote did not technically prove the greenhouse-gas effect, which results from the gases in the atmosphere trapping the sun’s heat that is reflected by the Earth in the form of infrared radiation. “For that reason her conclusion, that carbon dioxide traps more heat than the other gases she measured, is more serendipitous then evidential,” Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University wrote on Facebook. “Her hypothesis, however, that long-term changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could affect the temperature of the Earth, was remarkably prescient.”

"I suspect there are many more women who are deserving to be considered for the prize. Therefore, we have started to identify leading women scientists and have invited for them to be nominated. We will, starting next year, indicate in our invitation to nominate women scientists and consider ethnic and geographic diversity. Finally, we are going to have a conference this winter with the different prize committees to discuss this issue. So we are concerned, and we are taking measures. I hope that in five years or ten years, we will see a very different situation."