Climate question-and-answer service available for journalists
Nov 15, 2010 - by Staff
BOULDER—A new service, set up for at least the next two months, is providing reporters with timely responses to their questions about the science of climate change.
The Climate Q&A Service is organized by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and supported by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Approximately 700 Ph.D.-level climate scientists, who represent a diversity of climate science disciplines, are volunteering to receive and respond to questions via a shared email address. Teams of up to 10 scientists at a time have signed up for shifts from Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time.
Jeff Taylor. (©UCAR, photo by Carlye Calvin. This image is freely available for media use. Please credit the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. For more information on how individuals and organizations may use UCAR images, see Media & nonprofit use.*)
NCAR scientist Jeffrey Taylor is managing the service, which will continue through at least the third week of January.
Reporters with questions about climate science (not policy) can email their questions to questions@agu.emailcenterpro.com. Responses will be returned in a timely fashion with regard for journalists’ deadlines. The answers will reflect the research and views of the responding scientists, but not of NCAR or AGU.
The Climate Q&A Service builds on last year's 10-day pilot program that coincided with the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen. AGU will collect data on the requests and responses and solicit feedback from participants in order to evaluate the service.
For more information about the service, journalists can visit the project’s mobile-device-friendly website at www.agu.org/climateqa. From there, journalists can download a free widget for submitting questions to the service, which can be easily embedded on a web page.
In addition to the service, reporters who have questions about climate and other aspects of atmospheric science are always welcome to contact the NCAR/UCAR Media Office or individual scientists.
The Climate Q&A Service email box operates on a platform provided by Palo Alto Software of Eugene, Oregon.
AGU, the world’s largest organization of Earth and space scientists, is a not-for-profit, professional, scientific organization with more than 58,000 members in over 135 countries. The organization advances the Earth and space sciences through its scholarly publications, conferences, and outreach programs.