We've all seen those online personality quizzes to see which superhero you are or which Disney princess you are most like, but Columbia University's International Research Institute have come up with a new one: Which climate phenomenon are you?
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| Source: www.farmersalmanac.com |
http://www.buzzfeed.com/climatesociety/what-climate-phenomenon-are-you-actually-10hu5
Apparently, I am like the Pacific Decadal Oscillation - Mysterious apparently!
Aside from the novelty of this quiz, I appreciate the effort to bring a bit of climate science into a different more entertaining platform. ENSO gets a lot of press but there are lots of competing and compounding mode of climate variability with global and local effects. Personifying them in this way is a neat idea to help in their understanding.
I now have a closer affinity towards the PDO at least!
There's a summary of many of the significant modes of climate variability at the IRI website. This link will no doubt be useful as these modes will surely come up again in my future blogs.
Hey I'm mysterious also! Well, I mean I got PDO from the test...
ReplyDeleteI allude to the personification of ENSO (sorry more press!) in my last blog post:
http://seathebiggerpicture.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/the-3-depictions-of-el-nino.html
I find these are interesting ways of making a complex topic more accessible, which can only be a good thing right?
Welcome to the PDO club! I wonder whether Climate Change MSc students have a propensity for particular results from this quiz?
DeleteIndeed, I'm really interested in the communication of science too. There are so many different approaches to engagement. The framing aspects of how to develop the best communication and engagement strategies is key, I feel. As climate change is such an ubiquitous issue, everyone has a stake in working out what to do about it and increasing our understanding of the interconnected issues! I think we're still a way off having everyone on board for the challenge, but we are getting there - and yes, effective communication between the public, the scientific community, policy makers, and industry is vital. I'm planing a post on this in the near future!
I got climate change. At least everyone is talking about me, which is nice.
ReplyDeleteI agree this is a great education tool.
Nice one, James. You're ears must be burning if everyone is talking about you, especially in the run up to COP21!
DeleteCredit to the guys at IRI for using this idea to help spread understanding of climate change and variability in an interactive and fun way.
I hope all's well at NCAR!
Haha! finally a Buzzfeed quiz I can get behind! I got Climate Change too - haven't figured out if I should be offended by that yet.
ReplyDeleteGood spot on the climate variability link, too. Useful stuff :)
With so many different views/issues surrounding climate change, you could probably choose to be either offended or complemented as you wished :)
DeleteYeah, the guys are IRI are great. I've worked with a few of the researchers who have developed the seasonal climate forecast outputs and some involved in climate variability.
Interesting. I got pdo as well :P
ReplyDeleteAnother mysterious climate change graduate student! :)
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