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[introduction 2001 - meanwhile part of the 'history' of ESPERE]
A Three-Step Plan
- Formation of a link list for the countries involved
- Creation of the homepage
- Publicity for the project
1. Formation of a Link List
The wheel didn't have to be invented twice! There is already a lot of information concerning climate- and environmental change available on the Net. As long as we manage to find the relevant sites, we can set up links to them. A word to our authors would also make sense here; asking them to work together with us and to donate text, graphics or images.
Amongst the sites available (though sometimes not available for downloading) are annual reports from institutions, final reports from research projects etc. We will sort some of these into the "Scientific Information" section. This material is likely to be too complex and subject-specific to offer to most people as background material.
The "General Information" section will include links to websites which contains more easily understandable information. This will not only give an overview of what is being done and where in each country, but will also be useful for the scientific community.
For this reason, the whole link list will be available both in English and in the official language of the respective country.
2. Creation of a Homepage
The following diagrams show a possible design for the structure of a future homepage. This diagram splits up the environmental sciences relevant to global climate change into five areas. Each of these areas will be given a certain colour, with subtitles that could, for example, vary in brightness according to their level of difficulty.
The sun, the earth,
radiation and greenhouses,
the history of climate
(includes: cosmic overview, radiation budget, solar cycle, paleoclimate, glaciology) |
Introduction
|
volcanoes and oceans
global cycles
How chemicals wander round the world
(ocean chemistry, ocean cycles, sulfur, nitrogen and carbon cycle, emissions of volcanoes) |
|
|
Atmospheric chemistry
from ozone smog
to the ozone hole
(tropospheric and stratospheric chemistry, explanation of the ozone hole)
|
What scientists do ...
Reports and pictures from labs, field campaigns, etc. |
wind, clouds
and weather
global and local
(cloud processes, precipitation, airmass exchange, flux, weather) |
Dictionary of
environmental terms
|
What towns plants and nature
send to / take up from
the atmosphere ...
(urban and biogenic emissions, biomass burning, biochemistry) |
These broad areas will include many sub-fields, from a general overview to detailed information on each topic. The content and depth of specific topics will of course depend upon the size of the supporting group.
The basic version of each subpage will be created by experts in that area. Of course, at the cutting edge of research, opinions are bound to differ. Each page should therefore be read by another expert in that area, in a way similar to the peer-review system used by scientific journals.
Just as important as the reliability of the facts is the general accessibility of the work. For this reason, each page shall be sent to two non-scientists, who will help us to identify areas where problems could arise.
A table such as the one below could be used as a navigation tool within the site, to enable the user to jump from one topic area to another. The table should appear on, or be accessible from each page.
| basic introduction to the field, e.g. part yellow |
| sun and earth |
radiation budget |
solar cycle |
paleoclimate |
glaciology |
| se 1 |
se 2 |
se 3 |
se 4 |
se 5 |
rb 1 |
rb 2 |
rb 3 |
rb 4 |
rb 5 |
sc 1 |
sc 2 |
sc 3 |
sc 4 |
sc 5 |
pc 1 |
pc 2 |
pc 3 |
pc 4 |
pc 5 |
gl 1 |
gl 2 |
gl 3 |
gl 4 |
gl 5 |
The development of the sites internationally should be done in parallel in each language so that the site will be useful for everybody and not only those familiar with the English language. A Master version will be created in English. Translation into the other languages depends upon the strength of each country's supporter group.
However, even in the best-case scenario, development work on a volunteer basis could take over one year.
3. Publicity
At the very end, publicity for the project through various media will be sought. Which means can be used to best effect remains yet to be decided. With the incredible development of communication technology today, predicting the way things will be in two to three years time is impossible. One thing though is sure- if no acute environmental catastrophe occurs ( and one should not hope for such 'advertisments') the spreading of the availability of this climate net will be a challenge.
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