Can any ecologically minded dopers point me towards a sound, userfriendly introduction to Global Warming and related issues from an accredited scientific source? My google searching is hampered by a lack of scientific nous so acute I can’t tell the credible outlets from the propagandists. Thanks.
Thanks Blake. That looks quality.
We aim to please.
The IPCC is the reference source when it comes to climate change. It covers an incredible breadth of information as well as producing material intended for everything from politicians and other lower lifeforms through to teachers and on up to research scientists. It also has the added bonus of being as close to impartial as it’s possible to get. I’ve never heard of anyone actually dipsuting what the IPCC says, just the spin that others put on their material. If their’s a flaw with the IPCC site it’s that it can sometimes be hard to find anythinga ta ll because of the sheer mass of material it contains. But stick to the front page and you’ll get a good layman’s overview.
The NOAA/NCDC page covers some more interesting ground but for a general level reader I mostly inlcuded it for the the climate change FAQ, as well as being a handy repository of all sorts of graphs and figures that are much easier to find and use than those hidden in the bowels of the IPCC website.
There are numerous other sites that give a reasonable introduction for laypersons, (egthe Greenhouse Accounting CRC) but they temd to just repeat stuff from the IPCC and NOAA anyway and none of them are quite as credible and impartial as the IPCC itself.