Dot Earth: Transparency and Interactivity of Climate Change

A.C. Revkin has over twenty years of experience reporting on environmental issues, fourteen of which he has reported for the New York Times. Currently he addresses the global environment in print and in his blog Dot Earth, where he has until now posted seven hundred sixty articles and one thousand twitter messages.

“One billion people, one planet” is the headline of Dot Earth. It addresses anyone interested in a clear-eyed exploration of risks and opportunities as humans head toward a peak population of approximately nine billion in the next fifty years. The aim of the blog is to examine efforts to balance human affairs with the planet’s limits.

Dot Earth’s posts grow out of the flow of news and research on climate, energy, biodiversity, population, poverty, disaster risk, and related issues. These posts include relevant initiatives in the arts and communication. Mr. Revkin attempts to track the evolving state of the Climate Change Science¹ with a particular focus on questions that matter most to society: the pace and extent of warming and sea-level rise, the impact of climate change on extreme events, biodiversity, water, and other resources. He also attempts to realistically observe policy options and related political and economic issues.

Dot Earth is clearly less formal and more conversational than his news articles. It is interrogatory, being, as he defines it, “a journey or exploration of ideas, not a conclusive synthesis”. In fact, there is a real debate among Mr. Revkin and the lectors: their many comments about the article are proof that Dot Earth is informal and exploratory. It is a mutual exchange. Among his sources of information he mentions technical journals and leading scientists that discuss trends in particular fields but his sources of inspiration are the readers, providing him with direct and indirect suggestions on what they are anticipating.

He uses two watchwords, transparency and interactivity, to deal with complex climate change issues. Both of these words are supported not only by the content of the articles, but also by the lay out and the organisation of the website. The blog design is clear and easy to navigate and therefore “transparent.” Many undersigned and highlighted words in the articles permit the reader to open small pop-up windows which allow him to see the source of the sentence, or a linked article in another website, blog, or newspaper. The website is “Interactive” because of the 2.0 instruments that Revkin utilizes to communicate with the reader. He reaches the reader via twitter, facebook, and youtube. The blog is rich of photos, videos, and slideshows which makes navigation a pleasurable experience. It is a pity that it is so difficult to reach Dot Earth from the Home Page of the NYT website.

1. myown footnote