Climate Feedback

The word of 2016 was 'post-truth'; that's unsettling for anyone, but maybe for scientists a little bit extra so. And with a climate denier now in the White House the scientific community has to pretty much grasp any opportunity to get some solid information into the world.

Last month I received an email from an organisation called Climate Feedback; they aim to festoon articles in the media about climate matters with comments from climate scientists, so that any lay person can easily check if such article carries off the approval of the scientific community. Additional information is provided too: links to relevant other articles, illustrations, etc etc. Anything we might think might further elucidate the matter. I say we, as that email asked me to join Climate Feedback. I did!

This month I received my first request to add comments to an article that had appeared online; it dealt with 2016 having been the hottest year on record. By the time I got down to it, many other people had already been commenting, so I only filled in two gaps I still saw. But I did my bit! And I think that's important. And I know we are probably preaching to the converted; I don't think any climate denier would bother to read our stuff. But maybe some interested lay people benefit from us peppering text like that with extra information! I do hope so...