New Online Discussions on Good and Not-So-Good Climate Reporting

Drapkin’s radio and Web program, the subject of an October 2012 Yale Forum piece, turns the traditional model of climate change communication — scientist to journalist to public — on its head. In her work in rural Colorado, Drapkin solicits environmental observations from local residents and then turns them into questions for scientists, many from nearby institutions. By starting with their observations, rather than with her own questions, Drapkin bypasses the skepticism with which many of her listeners still view climate change.

Drapkin makes this case by taking her RFF audience through her production process for stories on winter forest fires, on plants blooming out of sequence, and on early mosquito hatches. People who have observed a landscape closely for years, she says, are naturally curious about the changes they are seeing. When scientists answer residents’ questions about these changes, they can address the residents’ real concerns rather than merely confirm or challenge their ideological convictions.

Major Churches join call for tough action on climate change

'Our organisations jointly call on Members of Parliament to seize this unique opportunity to commit the UK in the Energy Bill to have a near carbon free power sector by 2030, in line with the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change.

Climate change effect on plant communities is buffered by large herbivores, new research suggests | e! Science News

To simulate the effects of the 1.5-to-3.0-degrees-Celsius warming that is predicted to occur over the next century, he erected special warming chambers -- cone-shaped hollow structures that create a greenhouse effect. Some areas on which these warming chambers were placed were left open to grazing by caribou and musk ox -- two ecologically important large herbivores in the Arctic -- while separate 800-square-meter areas that also received warming chambers were fenced off to exclude the animals. In this way, Post created two very different environments: one in which plants and herbivores continued to live together as the temperatures climbed within the warming chambers; the other in which the animals were not present and the plants were left ungrazed.