destroy false information!

These websites, both previously unknown to me, both serve to facilitate a dialogue about climate change, which is very important in this age due to rampant skepticism among United States’ conservatives. Who is right, and in which regard, is yet to be known, and each website exhibits its own set of strengths and weaknesses.

Friends of Science initially struck me as an aesthetically pleasing website that served as a platform for a conspiracy theory. I was confused at first because, upon reading more of their scientific beliefs, I was presented with a new argument to an old problem of which I was familiar, the premise being that the sun is the driver of climate change and not CO2. As I read more of their myth-debunking, I thought to myself that the site was probably a puppet organization accepting massive amounts of money from powerful lobbies in order to divert focus from the true root of the problem. However, my harsh criticism was slightly alleviated when I read their “About Us” section explaining their nonprofit nature. After that, I became confused about who truly becomes the authority when it comes to acknowledging the problems and how to solve them. I found the FoS website to be encouraging because it openly promoted a roundtable conversation on the global issue while providing cohesive explanations of their platform. The site also does a good job of sharing the sources from which its claims are made.

Grist’s website, “How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic” is in principle an excellent idea that gets carried away with extensive science-speak that turns the website into more of a burden than a resource. The formatting is uneasy to navigate, which an overabundance of links, although each argument that an ignoramus might make is clearly broken down. There was no counterargument to the FoS site’s claims, which leads me to believe that, due to its lack of mainstream or academic mention or credibility, FoS is probably promoting the wrong agenda. This is unfortunate because the site is designed much better and easier to engage as a resource. I look forward to hearing Professor Nicholson’s insight on the FoS site.