[Coral-List] The public, wikipedia, holocene temperatures

Szmant, Alina szmanta at uncw.edu
Wed May 28 16:19:38 EDT 2014


I think the main plot in the link below presents a rather confusing picture for non-scientists and doesn't show the recent warming well at all.  Most no-scientists (and even many scientists) may not understand the concept of anomalies vs actual temperatures.  I have seen much better temperature reconstructions that would be better understood by non-specialists. 


"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." Eleanor Roosevelt

"The time is always right to do what is right"  Martin Luther King

*************************************************************************
Dr. Alina M. Szmant
Professor of Marine Biology
AAUS Scientific Diving Lifetime Achievement Awardee
Center for Marine Science
University of North Carolina Wilmington
5600 Marvin Moss Ln
Wilmington NC 28409 USA
tel:  910-962-2362  fax: 910-962-2410  cell: 910-200-3913
http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta
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-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of David Obura
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 10:48 AM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] The public, wikipedia, holocene temperatures


Hi Ian, 

This is a great post Ian ... in searching for information on general marine science/conservation in the last few years I've also noticed how often Wikipedia is the first port of call for search engines. I've also noticed that there are some incredibly informative pages set up by very credible and professional groups - these obviously go through the same peer process as others, but at least it is balanced heavily by good expertise, and survive any mangling that may happen from 'less informed' contributors.

Along with social media-ing, perhaps we should also be writing wikipedia pages on the topics closest to our professions, and following the process so that they survive the edits that will no doubt be imposed over time.

regards, David


CORDIO East Africa
#9 Kibaki Flats, Kenyatta Beach, Bamburi Beach P.O.BOX 10135 Mombasa 80101, Kenya www.cordioea.net ; Email: dobura at cordioea.net; davidobura at gmail.com
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On 28 May 2014, at 16:51, coral-list-request at coral.aoml.noaa.gov wrote:

> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 28 May 2014 12:55:44 +1000
> From: Ian Butler <ian.butler at uqconnect.edu.au>
> Subject: [Coral-List] The public, wikipedia, holocene temperatures
> To: <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Message-ID: <003c01cf7a20$541777c0$fc466740$@uqconnect.edu.au>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> 
> 
> I thought I would post this graph of global temperature change over 
> the Holocene epoch. It has popped up a lot lately in my wanderings.
> 
> 
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Holocene_Temperature_Variations.png
> 
> 
> 
> Whether you like Wikipedia or not, it is the go-to source of 
> information for lots of people and is often the first result for 
> Google searches.  This is the scientific information that the 
> non-scientific public reads and often not a bad start for the scientists too.
> 
> 
> 
> Climate scientists, is this the information that we the public should be
> looking at and making our decisions?    Look especially at the ?average?
> heavy black line.  
> 
> 
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Ian
> 
> 
> 
> `?.??.???`?.? ><((((?>     ><((((?>
> 
> `?.??.???`?.?><((((?>  ><((((?>  ><((((?>      <?)))>< ?.??.???`?.?
> 
>        `?.??.???`?.? ><((((?>                  
> 
> Ian Butler
> 
> Hervey Bay, Queensland
> 

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