Information about climate

Steps

1. Understand the meaning of climate change. Climate change was a term first coined at the beginning of the twentieth century to cover shifts in climate. In the 1970s, scientists started noticing a gradual warming of the planet, and chose the term global warming to reflect this. Nowadays, although global warming remains a popular term, scientists prefer the more general term climate change because it reflects the unfortunate reality that some parts of earth are going to become colder, wild weather events are going to increase in intensity and the changes across the planet are not going to reflect one even warming pattern.
   • More specifically, climate change is referring to the natural change in climate over time. Anthropogenic climate change is the change in climate due to human activity. While the former is widely accepted, the latter is the cause of great controversy.

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2. Stick with the science. A lot has been written about climate change and a lot of it reflects personal agendas, deliberately misleading propaganda arguments, misinterpretations and misunderstandings. Some of the disinformation has been dressed-up to look like science.
   • Always question the material that you find and try to analyze it to see whether or not it is aiming to be objective. Although that is not always easy, because spurious organizations with impressive-sounding names have been set-up to peddle pseudo-science.
   • Be sensitive to who has produced the information and the interests behind the organization, group or individual producing the information.
3. Use the internet wisely. Look for reputable sites that carry scientifically based information and present evenly balanced information. Always wear your thinking cap, whatever the caliber of a site, as your questions about what you read are as important as anyone else's. The following sites are considered some of the reputable sites with reliable sources of scientific assessment information on climate change:
   • IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
   • Spencer Weart's Discovery of Global Warming - A historical perspective of the development of climate science from the American Institute of Physics. Contains numerous scientific references to the underlying science.
4. Make sense of the information. Use the help of those who have dedicated time, money and other resources to sifting through the scientific assessment information to bring you information in a more easily digested presentation but still in an accurate and reliable manner. The following sites are an example of some of the reputable research and news sites on climate change:
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   Bookmark your favourite climate change sites. Visit them regularly to keep yourself informed and up-to-date. Use reliable knowledge to make an informed decision on the topic.

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