''RealClimate'' is a commentary site (

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

) on

climatology Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , ''-logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of study ...

. The site's contributors include climate scientists whose goal is to provide a response to developing stories and a context they feel is sometimes missing in mainstream commentary on climate science and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

. The forum is moderated, and is restricted to

scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

topics to avoid discussion of

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

implications of the science. ''RealClimate'' was launched on 10 December 2004 by nine climate scientists.

Recognition

The creation of ''RealClimate'' was the subject of an editorial in the scientific journal ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

'', and was reported in the "NetWatch" news feature of the journal ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

''. In 2005, the editors of ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...

'' recognized ''RealClimate'' with a Science and Technology Web Award. In 2006, ''Nature'' compiled a list of the 50 most popular blogs written by scientists, as measured by

Technorati Technorati was a search engine and a publisher advertising platform that served as an advertising solution for the thousands of websites in its network. Technorati launched its ad network in 2008, and at one time was one of the largest ad network ...

. ''RealClimate'' was number 3 on that list. According to ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', ''RealClimate'' is "in line with the Web's original purpose: scientific communication" with a "straightforward presentation of the physical evidence for global warming".

Notable contributors

notable contributors to ''RealClimate'' included: * David Archer * Rasmus Emil Benestad * Raymond S. Bradley * Michael E. Mann *

Raymond Pierrehumbert Raymond Thomas Pierrehumbert is the Halley Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. Previously, he was Louis Block Professor in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. He was a lead author on the Third Assessment Report of th ...

Stefan Rahmstorf Stefan Rahmstorf (born 22 February 1960) is a German oceanographer and climatologist. Since 2000, he has been a Professor of Physics of the Oceans at Potsdam University. He studied physical oceanography at Bangor University and received his Ph. ...

Gavin Schmidt Gavin A. Schmidt is a climatologist, climate modeler and Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, and co-founder of the award-winning climate science blog RealClimate. Work He was educated at The Corsham Schoo ...

Eric Steig Eric Julian Steig is a Canadian-American glaciologist and geochemist who serves as professor of Earth and Space sciences at the University of Washington. He is also the founding co-director of ISOLAB and a founding member of RealClimate. In 2019 ...

Past contributors include: * William Connolley

References

External links

* {{global warming Climate change blogs American environmental websites Internet properties established in 2004 American science websites

Recognition

Notable contributors

See also

References

External links