Blog Critique.

The blog that I haven chosen to critique is called RealClimate – Climate science from climate scientists and it can be found at http://realclimate.org/. The focus of this blog is about one of the most serious issues facing mankind today, global warming. This blog is really important to individuals like myself, because it provides in depth information about the effects of global warming on the environment. It is also extremely relevant and useful to the wider community because it raises awareness of global warming. Hopefully through educating people about this, it will then encourage them to want to do something about it.

There are actually eleven people that contribute posts on this blog. Their names are listed in a column on the right hand side of the page under the heading ‘Contributors’. The authors are Caspar Ammann, David Archer, Eric Steig, Gavin Schmidt, Michael Mann, Rasmus Benestad, Ray Bradley, Ray Pierrehumbert, Stefan Rahmstorf, Thibault de Garidel and William Connolley. Viewers can also click on each of the authors names and read their biographies.

In terms of its content, RealClimate states that it is a “commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists”. Overall, the blogs content is a combination of news, facts and scientific research data which is used to inform viewers about this issue.

RealClimate was first established and has been operating since November 28^th 2004. This blog impacts on the wider community because it keeps its viewers up to date with regular and accurate posts relating to global warming. The blog has also been quoted in many newspapers and online articles (that can be viewed by clicking on the ‘In the News’ link). For example: The Guardian named RealClimate as one of “The new 100 most useful sites” in 2006 and also listed the blog as number 2 on their “Top ten green websites” for 2007.

The style of this blog in terms of its design and layout is also very simple yet effective. There is minimal colour, with black text on a white background, as well as green headings for each of the blogs which are positioned one underneath the other down the middle of the page. At the top of the blog is a banner head which includes the blogs name and a photograph of the earth and the sun.

(RealClimate's banner head.)

There are also links at the top of the page, for example ‘Home’, ‘About’, ‘Archive’ and ‘Start Here’. Finally, there is also a peach coloured column down the right side of the page with links under the headings: ‘Categories’ (such as: ‘Greenhouse gases’), ‘Contributors’, ‘Highlights’, ‘Other Opinions’ (other blogs to check out), ‘Science Links’ (to more websites), and ‘Translations’ (10 different languages that posts can be translated into including English, French and Chinese). Overall the blog has a very professional design that is appropriate to its serious subject matter. It is also very well set out and users can navigate easily through the site. The language used in this blog is also quite formal. The posts are very informative and more appropriate for well educated viewers. RealClimate however does cater for all viewers (regardless of their education level). By clicking on the ‘Start Here’ link, viewers are provided with links about global warming ‘For complete beginners’ right up to those who are ‘Informed, but seeking serious discussion’. The fact that there are 10 different languages available also shows that the blog doesn’t exclude people just because they don’t speak English.

The number of visitors RealClimate has had since December 10, 2004 is stated at the bottom of the right hand column. The amount is constantly increasing but the last time I visited the site it was at 4, 997, 930 visitors. RealClimate also uses some sources and they can be viewed by clicking on the ‘Top 10 Sources’ link (mainly other blogs and science based websites).

One of the great things about RealClimate is that it presents an objective scientific view on global warming. The authors simply provide the real facts regarding changing weather patterns, the greenhouse effect, etc. This is reinforced by a statement on the site that “the contributors do not represent the views of the organizations for which they work … and receive no remuneration for their contributions”. There are also no advertisements on this blog, which shows that its purpose is to simply provide the facts about this issue and not to generate profits. Overall, RealClimate is a really interesting and informative blog and I definitely recommend that you visit it. You won’t be disappointed!