Hello world!
One thing that people have requested is more information about who we are, what the editorial process is, and what our perspective on the stuff we write about is.
The project is run by me – Christian. I’m fascinated by climate science and the discussions it creates. I’ve previously worked for Greenpeace UK as a web editor, and before that as a researcher for the Public Interest Research Centre – which is a small charity based in Wales. I still miss living in Wales and being near the mountains. I have a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy, and an MA in Conflict Resolution – jokes about that are acceptable and won’t be flagged as ad-hominems, providing they’re funny. I am on twitter.
Research and writing assistance is provided by Robin Webster, who has worked as a campaigner for Friends of the Earth, and as a freelance writer. Robin has studied biology and conservation, is very good on thinking about the challenges of communicating science clearly, and understands the world of energy much better than I do.
We have two interns working for us as well, Verity and Neil. Verity is a geochemist and has just completed a Phd at Leeds University – she helps us make sure what we put out is scientifically accurate. Neil is a recent graduate from the Goldsmiths journalism MA.
Others blog posts are from past interns, freelancers, or reposts from other blogs.The responsibility for the editorial line of the site rests with me – I read (almost) everything before it goes up, edit articles, sometimes rewrite them extensively (not reposts), and occasionally add spelling mistakes.
As to our perspectiveâ?¦ hopefully it’s fairly clear from the blog where we’re coming from. My interest is the accuracy of discussion of climate science and reflecting the scientific factbase on the issue. I’d also like to see media coverage of climate and energy pay attention to getting its sourcing right and facts right.
There is broad agreement in the scientific community about many aspects of climate science, and I hope to reflect that in our work. We ask scientists for advice and to help us get things right because we want to be clear about what we do know, and also about where the uncertainties in the science are and what they mean. (See this recent post, for example.)
Finally, we’re funded by the European Climate Foundation, who have no input into what we write, apart from occasionally emailing me to point out spelling mistakes.
Hope this is helpful. Going forward, we’ll endeavour to make it clearer who has written each blog post, and I have updated our About page with the same info.