As a geology graduate hoping to transition to a climate science-related field of work, I thought I would put together a list highlighting some valuable resources to learn about climate science and Earth System Science I have found. This list will focus on freely available resources such as websites, youtube channels, and social media pages. I will post more articles soon giving some book recommendations and other forms of media that cover relevent topics. I also plan to keep updating this as I discover more resources, so it will also help me have a toolkit of climate change information.
The obvious place to begin is the latest version of the IPCC Summary for Policymakers, published last year. It offers an overview of the scientific basis for climate change, the impacts according to different emissions paths we follow (derived from state-of-the-art climate models), and much more. All of this is packaged in an accessible way to someone without a background in climate science. It condenses the mammoth undertaking of climate scientists, Earth scientists, biologists/ecologists, and people from many other disciplines who have helped better our understanding of climate change over time. To give some perspective on the size of this undertaking, the larger report itself was authored by 234 leading scientists and contains over 14,000 references! Thousands of other scientists gave up their time and expertise to make sure everyone can access this incredibly valuable resource with up-to-date, clear information about the issues we face.
This website gives up-to-date news stories related to environmental issues and, unlike the majority of media outlets, its articles are primarily written by scientists. This is refreshing to see when media spaces are so informed by biases, much of which has allowed misinformation on climate change to spread so freely. The Conversation is a great website and includes articles that cover the science as well as policy matters surrounding climate change and other environmental topics. Giving researchers a direct platform is especially valuable since, in the past, their voices on environment related topics have been confined to inaccessible, specialist journals.
Like The Conversation, Carbon Brief features many scientists writing about climate change. They include news stories, summaries of the latest research, and explainers that delve into popular questions people have about climate change. A huge amount of work goes into their articles, especially the interactive pieces such as this one, explaining how proxy data helps unravel past climates to inform us about future change.
DeSmog is a blog-style website that sheds light on misinformation about climate change. They have detailed profiles of prominent deniers and make sure to outline their funding sources, while dispelling the unscientific claims they perpetuate. They cover news on social justice, political, and legal elements of climate change with a strong emphasis on global impacts. DeSmog goes above and beyond to uphold accountability of politicians, deniers, and corporations, tracking their pledges and debunking the attempts at greenwashing. The website is a leading example of how I believe climate journalism should be done and made accessible.
This website is perfect for me as someone fascinated by both the science and media framing of climate change. This framing too often takes the form of taking snippets of scientific studies out of context and repurposing them to sound as if they support the notion that climate science is a nefarious plot by the scientific community to usher in communism. Prominent talking heads who deny climate change, and usually have the backing of exceptionally wealthy oil companies and think tanks, have used the same talking points for decades. “Scientists in the 1970s predicted that we would experience an ice age”, “carbon is good because it allows more plants to grow”, “the Sun is the main control on the current warming trends we see”, and many, many other arguments have been advanced and continue to do so but, thankfully, Skeptical Science takes one for the team and debunk these common myths. They often begin the article with a quote by a prominent denier and then proceed to offer the missing context or an explanation of where the problems lie in their arguments.
An underrated feature of this website is that many of their articles include different “levels” that you can select depending on your knowledge base of the science. Many other science outreach platforms should take note and as Einstein once said, “if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”. I love this attitude to communicating science and it is especially important regarding climate change, which is going to impact our way of life more going forward.
Simon Clark makes great climate change-related content on youtube and explains things that are as easily digestible as they are informative. He has a clear passion for science and is a great asset to the ever-growing scicomm space that is youtube. His videos address FAQs about climate and the Earth System, book recommendations, debunking of climate myths, more light-hearted content e.g. reactions to comments made by climate change deniers, and general vlogs e.g. those detailing his journey to obtain a Ph.D.
Michael Mann, of Penn State University, is possibly the most popular climate scientist on Twitter, the only social media platform I use, and it is easy to see why. He is a prolific writer and has published several books, media articles, and scientific papers, including his paper containing the now-famous “Hockey Stick” graph. He tirelessly attempts to set the record straight on climate change misinformation and educate the masses on the subject he cares so deeply about. His latest book, The New Climate War, offers a valuable insight into how misinformation has adapted as it has become increasingly difficult to directly deny the science of climate change. It focuses on the “distraction, deflection, division, and despair-mongering” that has been used to enable big oil to carry on its destructive activities unabated even as people become more aware of the problem. I disagree with Mann on a lot of his political views however it is clear that he is doing as much as he possibly can to affect change in the best possible way and I hope he is correct in his optimism about us overcoming the issues we face. I would definitely recommend following his twitter and keeping up to date with his writing across various media outlets.
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