Image: NOAA, via the NCA
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"The feedback we've heard has been almost universally positive, which makes me distrustful of it," Michael Rader, a project manager with Forum One, told me in an email. Rader has been involved with the site's design process since its inception a year ago. An acquaintance of mine who doesn't follow climate issues described the end product as "informative/useful."But I have to agree with Mr. Bump; I've sifted through a lot of climate reports online in my day, and this might be the best presentation I've seen. The most fundamental science and urgent impacts are creatively outlined right up front, in a Highlights section: Interactive graphics show us plainly how rising carbon dioxide levels correlate to rising temperatures. We see the stunning Arctic ice melt in a hands-on tool that compares cover today to decades past. We get graphs, charts, and brief, well-written captions.The internet responded. While the report itself made front page news on every major newspaper besides the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, those charts and graphics flooded editorial sites around the web in the form of listicles (Mashable's "7 Charts That Show How Climate Change Is Already Altering Life in the US" is a perfect example) and media-heavy articles.That was just part of the platform's aim. "Scientists and policymakers can drill down into the report, or the data via our Browse section or the GCIS," Rader wrote. "Non-experts can learn the basics of climate change in the Understand section, or use the Explore section to look for information on their region a specific topic. People that are very interested in climate change can follow news and engage with the public opportunities in the assessment process. And everyone can drill down into the report."This is actually one of the best designed, clearest articulations of climate change I've ever seen.
— Philip Bump (@pbump) May 6, 2014
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