Environmental Websites

The Friends of Science website claims that their goal is to help engage Canada in debates about the validity of climate change science and the Kyoto protocol, and to do so by educating the public about the so-called “science” of global warming. FOS believes that the main cause of global warming is the heat from the sun, and that like any other natural process, the best way to respond is through adaptation and not flawed attempts at changing the process.

The Grist Magazine website approaches climate change skepticism by simply answering claims made against the existence of global warming. Its purpose is much different than the FOS website in that it takes a less serious approach, acknowledging the fact that the world is full of tree-hugging environmentalists, and what we need instead is a light-hearted approach to an extremely serious issue.

I think that in trying to evaluate the scientific claims that these websites make, you have to understand the purpose of spreading the information in the first place. For FOS, they're goals are to have the government of Canada re-evaluate the Kyoto Protocol, so they obviously have some sort of political agenda. Additionally, its important to question the sources of their science – it specifically says on the FOS website that although the body is comprised of highly educated scientists and professionals, they do not do any original scientific research but instead research works already written by scientists.

I think this definitely makes the site way less convincing and a lot less valid, because you can't even trace their claims back to any valid body of work. Instead, their claims seem like opinions that they push for their own agenda, using words such as “significant”, “mild warming”, etc., to provide the rhetoric that climate change is not a real threat. They do however, in talking about the importance of “adaptation” note that warming is a) something that cannot be ignored and b) something to which we do, to a degree, need to respond.

I appreciate the approach of the Grist website because its fronted by the WWF, which makes it seem a lot more legitimate, and also it makes no “claims” for climate change – instead approaches its existence as merely common sense. “There is no evidence”, well in fact, “yes there is”. The website also includes numerous links to other scientifically-recognized organizations such as NASA, the Climate Research Unit, etc., to back-up the claims they make.