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Climate Change

 

Iconic Graphs of Climate Change

Pop culture icons like Lady Gaga got nothing on climate science -- a massive effort by thousands of scientists, gathered in the various IPCC reports. Certain graphs and maps from these reports have gained iconic status. Meet the climate science superstars -- most popular of their class, the 12 maps and graphs that everybody wants to know. Learn their history, read their axes like an open book, and get the dish on all the controversies surrounding (or not surrounding) them.

 

Keeling Nails Carbon Dioxide

The year is 1956, and a young post-doc named Dave Keeling has just invented a way to measure carbon dioxide precisely. Not everyone is sure that's a great project, but within a few years, he publishes one of the most important papers in the history of climate science. Will he rest on his laurels? Be distracted by the lure of fame and fortune? Find out why Keeling's curve became one of the most important (and frightening) graphs of the 20th century.

 

Michael Mann builds a hockey team

We all know hockey is a vicious game, but science (and its interpretation by policy-makers, pundits, and deniers) can be vicious too. It started when Michael Mann and his colleagues used tree rings and other proxies to reconstruct a record of temperature from the Dark Ages to the present. Someone nicknamed it the Hockey Stick, accusations flew, and eventually Congress found itself involved. Spoiler: the Hockey Stick, expanded into the Hockey Team, wins the day, if not the girl. Check it out!