Revamped U.S. government science website shows vital climate info

The ocean is now absorbing nearly unfathomable amounts of heat as the prodigious burning of fossil fuels warms the planet.

You can clearly see how much the seas are warming — and loads of other accessible climate trends — on the newly revamped climate.gov website, which is maintained by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It’s a premier place to find credible climate information, for both everyday people and scientists.

“Climate.gov is America’s public gateway to climate literacy,” David Herring, chief of the NOAA Climate Program Office’s Communication, Education, and Engagement Division, said in a statement on Tuesday. “This redesign allows the site to continue to provide the highest level of service to its visitors.”

“Climate.gov is America’s public gateway to climate literacy.”

The climate.gov site first launched in 2010, so it was certainly due for a more layperson-friendly overhaul, with improvements like easier-to-find graphics and answers to common questions.

Ocean heat content trends since the 1960s. There’s been a stark warming trend since the early 1990s.
Credit: NOAA

What’s there to see?

The redesigned NOAA climate page contains a wealth of climate information and graphics. Here are some highlights.

• The “Global Climate Dashboard” shows clear visuals of climate trends over time. This includes rising ocean heat content (shown in the graphic above), rising sea level, diminishing mountain glaciers, diminishing Arctic sea ice, rising greenhouse emissions, and beyond.

• NOAA’s climate articles and explainers delve into salient or common questions, such as how increased greenhouse gases will make Southwestern megadroughts more common.

• The “Global warming frequently asked questions” page is a valuable tool for anyone seeking insight into misconceptions about climate science (“Isn’t there a lot of debate and disagreement among climate scientists about global warming?”) or asking questions about the credibility of NOAA’s climate science (“Can we trust NOAA’s global temperature data record?”)

• The “Climate Data Primer” page introduces the public to how climate data is collected, via weather stations, buoys, satellites, airports, and beyond.

A NOAA graphic showing the influence specific greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane, have in warming the planet.
Credit: NOAA

Climate.gov is a reliable source of climate change information, but certainly not the only excellent source. For example, NASA maintains an updated, visually-rich climate site, as does the European Space Agency.

And in a sea of misinformation on the web, Wikipedia’s Climate Change page is constantly updated and watched by an impressively diligent group of editors.

In the modern day, it’s not difficult to find credible, and digestible, climate information.

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