Best climate resources on the web
- 12 Aug 2011, 10:00
- Robin Webster
The climate blogosphere hasn't been at its most active this
week. So we thought we'd use the opportunity to put down our top
six (or seven) most useful climate resources on the web.
The Daily Climate
The US-based Daily Climate says that it
"works to increase public understanding
of climate disruption, including its scope and scale, potential
solutions and the political processes that impede or advance
them."
The site aggregates daily news across the political spectrum on
climate change "from center right to center left" as well as
undertaking its own reporting. It offers a free daily news summary,
which is well worth signing up to (here).
Yale e360
Digest/ Science
Daily
Want to know what the long-term implications of the Texas
drought are? Or why
polar dinosaur tracks are important? These are the two
best sites we've found for accurate, accessible summaries of the
latest research papers in climate science. Science Daily provides
expanded coverage of scientific press releases, Yale w360 does more
in-depth discussions.
IPCC Fourth Assessment Report
It may not be the most exciting read - and as it was produced
back in 2007, there's newer scientific research around. But until
they publish their Fifth Assessment in 2014, the IPCC's 'AR4' is
still the most authoritative presentation of the scientific
consensus on different aspects of climate change and its impacts.
The full reports are pretty indigestible, but
individual issue-specific web pages are accessible enough. To
get the best results, use a Google search of the site, rather than
searching on the site itself.
Skeptical Science
Started by Australian John Cook with the intention of "get[ting]
skeptical about global warming scepticism", Skeptical Science has
recently been expanding in scope and profile. It now has a full team of
(volunteer) writers and regularly features guest articles
from climate scientists. Key pages include
links to scientific rebuttals to every skeptic argument you
could ever think of, "the 10
indicators of global warming" and the excellent climate
graphics.
Climate Progress/
Think Progress
Joe Romm's US-based liberal blog was recently amalgamated into
its parent site, Think Progress. This didn't signal its demise -
Climate Progress continues to blat out the
longest and angriest headlines on the climate science
blogosphere. Romm is a Washington insider with great connections to
scientists and frequently catches the headlines. CP is a compelling
(and occasionally sensationalist) view from the heart of the heated
US energy and climate debate. Romm's
post on the Royal Society "4 Degrees" special issue journal is
a good place to start.
Bishop Hill
Want to understand climate skeptics better? Read their blogs.
Bishop Hill is the main staging post for UK skeptics. It is run by
Andrew Montford, author of "The
Hockey Stick Illusion" and of the GWPF's "review of
reviews" of the CRU email hack. The site posts nearly all the
main recent skeptic talking points, and even if you don't class
yourself as a climate skeptic, it's a consistently entertaining
read with useful coverage of the UK climate policy debate from a
right-wing climate skeptic perspective.