Climate Change is no joke.

August 20, 2007 at 5:10 pm | Posted in AR4, Climate change, Climate science, Global warming, IPCC, My graphic, OmniGraffle, SPM, Student, Teacher, Unequivocal, Visual aids, Visual Spatial | 4 Comments

(Update: this was first posted on May 8, 2007 and is now being republished with extra links, due to popular demand … Ed.)

Each green dot represents a scientist who bases his* answers upon scientific evidence and supports, in general, the summary of knowledge relating to climate change as summarised in the IPCC Assessment Report 4 (to be synthesised and published in full in November 2007).

Each red dot represents a scientist working to achieve one or more of these objectives:

• to deny global warming
• to deny human responsibility for causing (anthropogenic) global warming
• to deny human ability to deal with the threat of climate change
• to delay action to combat climate change
• to prevent action to combat climate change

This note is for British pupils I know who have been given Geography projects requiring them to do internet searches on environmental topics. To help you get your information from a reliable source:

• search on climate change rather than global warming
• trust well-known authorities such as:
  • the Royal Society and the Met Office in the UK for the science of climate change
  • the WWF for environmental issues
  • Defra for UK government-sourced information on the environment, climate change and energy as well as ways to act on CO2 and our climate challenge, and
  • the IPCC for the latest agreed statements from the world’s scientists and loads of climate change graphics direct from their source
  • David Attenborough speaking about climate change on YouTube for an appealing yet professional presentation of the key issues
• avoid American sources for British school projects unless you are familiar with the authors, or are specifically studying the American public and political response to climate change, and are aware of the politicisation of this topic in the USA
• if you have already learnt about persuasive essays, think about the material you discover about global warming and consider whether it fits the tips you have been given to make your own stories more persuasive. For example, does the article you may quote from use: colourful language, emotive word choices, adjectives you can ‘taste’ or ‘smell’, personal appeals, exaggerated statements?

More misinformation is produced by the tiny number of “red dot scientists” and recirculated by their supporters than you would believe possible!

* P.S. I am showing no disrespect to female scientists here. After all, I are one (sic), and I care not one jot if someone addresses me as chairman (as I told the builders this week ). Forget the chairperson thing. I am using ‘his’ and ‘him’ in the same way we talk about ‘mankind’. OK, over to you, kids.

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