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Reporting on Climate Change: Understanding the Science is a guide for reporters, educators, and other communicators on the current understanding about the science of global climate change. This guide is the third in a series initially intended to help journalists—both reporters and editors—understand and report on the most authoritative scientific findings involving the far-ranging issues related to global climate change. Initially conceived to be exclusively for journalists and editors, it has evolved over time as a resource also for formal and informal climate science educators and for other communicators needing a “plain English” grasp of climate science.
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REPORTING ON CLIMATE CHANGE UNDERSTANDING THE SCIENCE Cover Image: Earth's image is synthesized using data from four satellite sensors, here including land cover (green/tan on continents), forest fires (red dots on continents), sea-surface temperature (colors over oceans), and cloud cover. An El Niño event is apparent in the warm sea-surface temperatures off the western coast of South America. Source: Image by R. Houser, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. land layer from SeaWiFS project; fire maps from the European Space Agency; sea-surface temperature from the Visualization Laboratory, Naval Oceanographic Office, U.S. Navy; cloud layer cover from SEEC, University of Wisconsin, Madison. REPORTING ON CLIMATE CHANGE: UNDERSTANDING THE SCIENCE THIRD EDITION II | REPORTING ON CLIMATE CHANGE THANKS TO OUR TECHNICAL REVIEWERS The authors of this guidebook express their appreciation to the Department of Energy Office of Science Program Manager, David C. Bader, Ph.D., for his steadfast support of editorial independence and his adherence to the strictest standards of scientific credibility. In addition, the authors benefited significantly from outstanding technical reviews of individual chapters by the following technical experts: Jeffrey S. Amthor, Ph.D., Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy, Germantown, Maryland. David C. Bader, Ph.D., Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, formerly with DOE. Gerald A. Meehl, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado. Robert C. Worrest, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, Ciesin, Columbia University, New York, New York. Don Wuebbles, Ph.D., Head and Professor, Department of Atmospheric Science, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois. PERMISSIONS NOTICE This guidebook was produced with support from the United States Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Cooperative Agreement No. DE-FG02ER63414. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect that office's views or policies. Permission to reproduce portions of this guidebook is granted with use of the accompanying credit line: "Reproduced from Reporting on Climate Change: Understanding the Science, Third Edition, with permission from the Environmental Law Institute." This guide benefited substantially from prepublication review by a range of experts, but their review does not necessarily connote their or their organizations' endorsement of or support for all aspects of this guide. Reporting on Climate Change: Understanding the Science, Third Edition Copyright©2003 Environmental Law Institute® Washington D.C. All rights reserved. ISBN# 1-58576-064-1, ELI project code 021601 An electronic retrievable copy (PDF file) of this report may be obtained for no cost from the Environmental Law Institute website . [Note: ELI Terms of Use will apply and are available on site.] (Environmental Law Institute®, The Environmental Forum®, and ELR®—The Environmental Law Reporter® are registered trademarks of the Environmental Law Institute.) EDITOR’S NOTE | III EDITOR’S NOTE Like the first two editions th