The Basics of Environment Change

[shuggee]

The idea of this 'pin' is to help you find out about environment change, climate change, global warming and 'AGW'.

It is not meant to be a discussion thread. Members are welcome to add a link to a site which, in their opinion, is particularly important or useful in helping the layman understand these very complex subjects. If you have a question about the issues or the science, you could always start a new topic.

Please do not post links to sites or articles which you only wish to discuss or debate; these should go in the regular forum strands, or a new topic. If you have a strong objection to a link, you are, of course, entitled to post your opinion; once again, though, please try to use the regular strands for 'discussions'.

A lot of people want to understand environment change; the NW threads are popular and often 'lively', but can be difficult to follow at times. In this pin are some of the sites an interested non-scientist can link to. It has been kept as basic as possible; the links contain some information on most, if not all, of the main subjects that come up on the forum. Most of them have their own links which lead to more technical follow-up information or material.

Two documents stand out as being clear but detailed introductions to climate change: the Hadley Centre's 60 page pdf slideshow covers all of the main ideas:

http://www.met-office.gov.uk/research/hadl..._greenhouse.pdf

or a 24 page document called 'Understanding and Responding to Climate Change', produced by the US-based Board on Atmospheric Science and climate (BASC), on:

http://dels.nas.edu/basc/

NOAA, a huge US government organisation, has many interesting links on the subject. A quick 'google' will take you to their homepage. They have produced a very short summary of the IPCC Third Assessment Report (see below), in the form of FAQ's, on:

http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html

The Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC TAR) is a long document, but a very important one. It was a detailed international summary of the available science, in 2001, of climate change. A lot of discussions refer to this report, and debates still continue about its contents. On a wet weekend, you can find it on:

http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/

Reading this will certainly give you an advantage when discussing the issues, whether you agree or disagree with its contents. Note, though, that the fourth report is due out in January 2007, so some of the information will be out-of-date in a few months time. [a link will be posted when it becomes available online]

An American physicist, Spencer Weart, has produced an outstanding series of long essays on almost every issue to do with climate change, on;

http://www.aip.org/history/climate/index.html

Don't be put off by the title, 'The Discovery of Global Warming'; it is a very, very good site for finding out about all sides of the climate change debate.

For information on the past and future of British climate, The UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) is a good starting point: http://www.ukcip.org.uk/default.asp

Their overview of climate change is on: http://www.ukcip.org.uk/climate_change/

They also have a useful summary of the UK climate since 1914:

http://www.ukcip.org.uk/scenarios/ukcip02_...ervedtrends.asp

At the bottom are links to the Climate Research Unit, another excellent website, and their original research documents. A href="http://"www.cru.uea.ac.uk/" target=_blank>Http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/

There are people who do not assume/agree that global warming is happening. Three popular sites are:

http://www.junkscience.com

http://www.worldclimatereport.com/

and a site which is often featured on NW : http://www.iceagenow.com

Some eminent and respected scientists also take issue with a lot of the assumptions contained in the above reports. Of these, you should know about Climate Science; http://climatesci.atmos.colostate.edu/

and Prometheus.

Some of the commentators on climate change are 'controversial'. A US site called 'Sourcewatch' is not unbiased, but can be revealing about certain people. You can use the search engine on the index page to find out about them:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=SourceWatch

Why isn't Wikipedia on this list? Wikipedia is a brilliant resource. It is also an 'open' resource, meaning that the quality and honesty/reliability of some entries is doubtful, but it is hard to tell which. If you are on this pin, it is because you were confused. Relying on the entries in Wikipedia is likely to add to your confusion, until you have an idea about the quality of what you are reading, so, for a 'beginner', it isn't the best idea.

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If you 'google' 'global warming', you'll get about 42 million 'hits' in less than a second. In a day or so, a post will add some of the more useful and interesting sites that members have recommended, including weblogs and links to graphics.

Most regular contributors to these strands will understand that it would be impossible to give a complete picture in such a short space, and that to do so would spoil the point of the exercise. No doubt, they will add their own 'favourites'.

A final word, about the media: for most of us, the information we get about climate change comes from news, press and internet sources. The job of the media is to make a story out of the science, not to provide balanced public information. Like it or not, most news reports are 'spun'. They are not necessarily dishonest, but they can be deceptive. It is always a good idea to question what you read or hear from the media. NW is a good place to do this, as are many other forums; you will often get a lively exchange of views, and can then make your own mind up about how credible a story is.

Parmenides3

[parmenides3]

Several members responded to a plea for suggestions as to good sites and links for interested readers; these are some of the ones not included in the 'pin':

To kick off with, I think NOAA's summarisation of what global warming is is a good start - fairly straightforward and easy to understand:-

http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html

And since the idea of a shut-down of the conveyor, bringing a new ice age to Britain, is so popular, you ought to include this article from Woods Hole which is probably the best there is on the subject:-

http://www.whoi.edu/institutes/occi/viewArticle.do?id=9986

A history of British winters:

http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=...=winthist;sess=

Chemistry and influence of the major greenhouse gases

http://www.clearlight.com/~mhieb/WVFossils...house_data.html

Graph of world temperatures, 1881-present

http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/trends/temp/lugi...hics/allann.jpg

US Environmental protection agency: GW events

http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming....PolicyNews.html

Changing Climate in pictures:

http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/index.html

Golbal Weather Index. Weather and climate change news:

http://archive.wn.com/2006/02/28/globalweather/index.html

NOAA homepage - a massive repository of Climate change data and info:

http://www.noaa.gov/sitemap.html

Climate and weather statistics for the UK

http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~taharley/britweather.htm

IPCC - http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/index.htm

One of the early FAQ's I read (1997 but still good)

ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answer...e-change/basics

[This one may be a little out-of-date]

http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html seems quite good

'Real Climate' (of course) http://www.realclimate.org/

'Wiki' pages ???

Several good New Scientist articles over the years - not sure if any of them are on the net. Some good stuff from Greenpeace scientists from time to time - but they'd meet with howls of derision in most places net wise...

A good introduction to the science and history of Climate Change:

http://www.grida.no/climate/vital/intro.htm

Thanks to, in no particular order: Essan, Dawlish, Devonian, BFTP, John Holmes.

[johnholmes]

well there is plenty there to keep us all occupied for hours. Thanks for all the work in putting this together.

John

[Guest Viking141]

Not trying to stoke things up a bit because the GW threads have been a bit quiet in the last few days are we P3?

Seriously though, excellent idea.

[parmenides3]

Here is a webiste which addresses directly many of the comments posters make on NW about Climate Change, Global Warming and AGW. It is not 'balanced', in the sense that it assumes man-made global warming, and argues its points from there. It does, however, have many useful links to direct responses about popular questions. Recommended to the undecided and the converted wishing to find good quality supporting arguments for their point of view.

http://illconsidered.blogspot.com/

:)P

[parmenides3]

In order to keep things balanced, here is a link to a very well-known climate skeptic's site. It is not really for beginners, but is full of material supporting the idea that the AGW debate is wrong.

http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/

:)P

[parmenides3]

Here is another, rather good, FAQ, by Steve Sherwood, associate professor of Geology, Yale University.

I found it on another climate blog site. It is clear, carefully written, and links to several other sites (some of which are pinned above):

http://earth.geology.yale.edu/~sherwood/ClimateFAQ.html

:)P

[VillagePlank]

Here is another, rather good, FAQ, by Steve Sherwood, associate professor of Geology, Yale University.

I found it on another climate blog site. It is clear, carefully written, and links to several other sites (some of which are pinned above):

http://earth.geology.yale.edu/~sherwood/ClimateFAQ.html

:)P

Great article.

[parmenides3]

Following recent discussions on the threads about some of the common objections to the assumption that global warming is man-made (anthropogenic), this rather useful document from the Royal Socitey came to my attention: http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/downloaddoc.asp?id=1630

It is entitled 'Facts and fictions about global warming', and deals with many of the points that have been argued over recently in twelve short sections. It is mostly a 'defence' of the IPCC and the Third Assessment Report, but contains responses to some doubts you may have; I recommend a read-through (17 pages long) if some of the climate threads confuse you.

If there is anyone who has a good recommendation for a site which challenges the 'mainstream' view scientifically, please feel free to post a link.

:)P

Edited December 19, 2006 by parmenides3

[parmenides3]

As previously promised, here is the link to the IPCC 2007 Summary for Policy Makers: http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf

It is 18 pages long. The links to the other documents will come as they are made available.

As this is the 'baseline' against which much discussion of climate change is measured, it is worth the effort to read it if you have an interest in the subject. It will also save you the worry of reading the other 1000 pages in the later reports.

:)P

[Devonian]

The latest IPCC review of the science (May 2007) WG1 AR4 2007 is now available online.

From the preface:

"This Working Group I contribution to the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) provides a comprehensive assessment of the physical science of climate change and continues to broaden the view of that science, following on from previous Working Group I assessments. The results presented here are based on the extensive scientific literature that has become available since completion of the IPCC’s Third Assessment Report, together with expanded data sets, new analyses, and more sophisticated climate modelling capabilities."

[Devonian]

News Scientist looks at the 26 most common climate myths and misconceptions.

Oopps, meant to put that in the links...

Edited May 24, 2007 by Devonian

[parmenides3]

This is a very simple and clear summary of the current 'state' of scientific knowledge about climate change:

http://www.ametsoc.org/atmospolicy/Present...20for%20Web.pdf

:)P

[Bobby]

Climate change controversies: a simple guide, by the Royal Society.

http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=6229

Very good stuff addressing some sceptic arguments.