Environment: Climate Change
Application of Informatics
Al Gore's recent Noble Peace Prize, awarded for his efforts as a global warming crusader, was due in large part to the impact on global awareness of climate change made by Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth. If you've seen this movie, you probably noticed that many of the more compelling points are presented as visualizations of climate data, and its impact around the world, through the use of graphs and charts.
The visual presentation of abstract information is a critical aspect of Informatics, and if used correctly enables us to present succinct and forceful support for an argument.
Informatics in Action
We're inundated with opinion on global warming, from the radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, friends, and of course the Web. When was the last time you went to the source of the information? Is the earth really getting warmer? The following example demonstrates a visualisation of global temperature changes using real data gathered by Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Change (UK government)
Resources
Data
- View data in XML format.
- View data in CSV (Comma Separated Values) format.
- Met Office Hadley Centre observations datasets (Jul 2007)
Code
- View the source code
- Download the Python source code [Right click and Save As]