Compendium Maps: a visual summary of the climate debate

Posted on 5 November 2010 by John Cook

Compendium is a software tool by Open University that explores ways to map information, ideas and arguments. As part of his PhD, Jack Park used compendium to map the 127 skeptic arguments at Skeptical Science into a "Compendium map". What he did was sort all the different arguments into 16 main categories:

Clicking on any of the categories takes you to a page that displays all the skeptic arguments with a for and against one-line argument plus links to source web pages.

It's an interesting and accessible way to present a wealth of information for those new to the climate debate or seeking to get a broad overview (that is, if you don't already have the SkS iPhone app). Check out Jack's blog post for more info or to send him some feedback.

Comments 1 to 4:

Daniel Bailey at 16:30 PM on 5 November, 2010
As a mapping guy I find this intriguing! Not to mention potentially very useful as well.

It might be useful to include a link directly to the map in question.

The Yooper
Ned at 00:30 AM on 6 November, 2010
Hey, this is really cool.

Plus, I'm pleased to hear that someone has been able to use SkepticalScience in their dissertation. That's great!
muoncounter at 23:50 PM on 6 November, 2010
Here are databases of climate research literature in a similar map format. Scroll down to 'Research Front Map'; there are four sub-topics mapped out. Another interesting feature is the Top 20 list.

A few years back AAPT published 'famous physicist' and 'famous astronomer' trading cards; maybe someone can do climate scientists based on these lists.
lweinstein at 11:27 AM on 7 November, 2010
May I suggest you make a similar Compendium Map of the specific claims supporting that humans are the cause of the present warming, and that it is leading to a problem of significant size. Note, I did not say show there is warming, and this is a problem, but that it is human caused. It would be best if these are falsifiable claims so they can be tested.
Moderator Response: As far as the human attribution of the warming, please see the skeptic argument rebuttal It's Not Us - Intermediate.

You need to be logged in to post a comment. Login via the left margin or if you're new, register here.

Latest Posts

Compendium Maps: a visual summary of the climate debate

Posted on 5 November 2010 by John Cook

Comments

Smartphone Apps