Wonderful Application...

This application is long overdue and a wonderful and cheap resource for those looking for comprehensive information about climate change. My kids liked the top 10 list, which reminded them that the climate is always in flux as is climate science, that we have warmed in the past century but not in the past decade, that CO2 is used by plants as food and increases crop yields, that global sea ice levels are at the mean, and that the rate of sea level increase has declined. My twelve year old was particularly interested in the information about solar activity and its effect on climate because he is trying to convince me to buy more agricultural companies for his education account. He is under the impression that the recent solar minimum may lead to a very bad harvest next year that would ensure that he can afford a much better education six years from now.

I was very pleased with the large amount of material that the kids could use and the references that accompanied the material. That said, I have yet to see any material on the UHI effect, which was a disappointment to my son, who has been busy documenting it in the Metropolitan Toronto area, and has been looking at some of the literature showing that the CRU adjustment underestimates the effect by at least a factor of twenty. We have also not been able to find links to the surfacestations.org audit that documents the low quality of the surface stations, and to the GISS use of statistical interpolation in high latitude areas where temperatures are calculated using data from 1,000 km away rather than rely on actual station data. It is doubtful that any open minded individual would accept the AGW hype if that material were available for review.

The quiz is great. I would venture to guess that those that scored really poorly would rate this application low even though the correct answers are supported by references to actual empirical data rather than models or narratives. The Quiz on its own justifies the price because it provides an excellent assessment of your knowledge and leads you to investigate why you got certain answers wrong. My kids could not believe the fact that the greatest malaria epidemic in the 20th century took place in Siberia and used Google to find academic papers to justify the answer given. The fact that the application got them interested in a subject and got them to do research on it makes the price well worthwhile and has helped reduce some stress. They have so much material stored in their Google accounts that they are prepared for their usual science papers during the next academic year. And the fact that they will be bringing up well supported arguments that are not exactly popular will make them better able to handle criticism and to learn to think on their own rather than follow the herd.

My only negative has to do with the difficulty to read the text on the small screen of an iPod or iPhone. Old guys like me would like the text to be just a bit larger.

VangelV about Our Climate