Why This Site?

The climate debate truly generates more heat than light.  Readers, regardless of where you look, are confronted with opinion and doubt, charge and counter-charge.  You hear that the science is incomplete or unsettled, or that the critics are tied to corporations or lack expertise in climate science.  The back-and-forth holds little useful information for the reader.

Rarely do media presentations present substantive information that might allow readers to decide for themselves what they think on the issue.  In terms of climate stories, there seems to be a focus on reporting the most extreme events, possibly with a nod to a link to a changing weather and climate system.  But climate change is not about individual extreme events.  Climate is a long-term story of gradual, if powerful, changes.

I often get this question: “Do you believe in climate change?”  My response is to gently suggest that this is not the right question.  Science is not about beliefs.  I might rephrase the question as: “Does the evidence you have seen convince you that climate change is happening?”  To answer that question requires some access to real evidence.

The language of science is numbers, and that can be a barrier to telling an important story.  My goal with this site is to attempt to tell the story of weather and climate based on some of the most important climate-related information acquired by the science community over a very long period of time.  It’s a story built on measurements and numbers, but also on an important process of give-and-take, argument and consensus, that defines how science happens. 

With luck, I might be able to share with you the fascination that I have felt throughout my life for how weather works.  Even without the climate change context, how the oceans and atmosphere interact to redistribute the unequal distribution of the sun’s energy as delivered to the planet, is just a fascinating subject – at least for me.  I hope I can convey some of that fascination to you.

There will be straightforward assessments about the state of climate science and where the science says we are headed, but I will not put forth any suggestions about what we should do about climate change.  No policy dictates or political suggestions – just information.