Climate change in the news, from my students' perspectives
As scouted out by students in this semester’s Earth Sciences Seminar.
Historical trends, emissions and sinks
Happy 35th birthday, global warming (Real Climate, blogging on peer-reviewed research)Forest carbon stores may be massively overestimated (New Scientist, UK magazine for science enthusiasts)
Reducing soot might be shortcut to reverse climate change, new study says (Popular Science, US magazine for science enthusiasts)
Weather Extremes
Why was last winter so cold? And is this a problem for climate change? (Outdoor Science, blogging on peer-reviewed research)2010 Was Fourth Warmest U.S. Summer on
Record (Science Daily, on-line science press releases)Weird weather in a warming world (Op-ed section of New York Times, major US newspaper)
Environmental Implications
Arctic species under threat, report warns (CNN.com, major US TV news network)Too Hot to Handle: Impacts of Climate Change on Mussels (Science Daily, on-line science press releases)
Economic Implications
Climate change could make Canada’s North an economic hothouse (canada.com, an on-line news outlet by Canada’s largest newspaper publisher)The Promising future of “carbon” farming (National Wildlife Federation, news release)
Report: climate change a factor in world hunger (USA Today, major US newspaper)
The politics of climate change
Republican hopefuls deny global warming (The Guardian, a major UK newspaper)On the frontline of climate change: “it’s the burning issue Australia’s leaders dare not confront, even on the eve of a general election” (The Independent, a major UK newspaper)
Each student was responsible for bringing in one recent news article, summarizing it for the class, and for evaluating the effectiveness of the science communication. Students discussed the type of media outlet, intended audience, and how well the writers did in communicating to that audience. They discussed source of information in the article, what was intended to catch the readers’ interest, the use of jargon, and the timeliness of these news pieces.