the IPCC revelations regarding the Himalayan glacier melt and the "climategate" emails have been discussed around here so much that they hardly need an introduction. And, before all of this stuff came out, I was a firm believer in the science of global warming and the actuality of global warming and climate change.
And, after these revelations and a few others, I'll admit. They changed my views on global warming.
How did they change them?
They made me more convinced of the reality and science of global warming.
This will appear to be a strange conclusion to some skeptics and deniers. After all, didn't the emails totally invalidate everything? And isn't this the greatest hoax ever? And shouldn't all these climate scientists just commit hari kari?
Well, after reading all of that, and much more, it prompted me to be a good scientist and go out and actually investigate the data, instead of just accepting that scientists who have spent their entire lives studying the issues are better served to figure out the truth and to be honest than ideologues who've spent their entire life denigrating their opponents, turning themselves into the victim at any opportunity, and working to give their side "victory" at all costs (including giving up facts - they have a well-known liberal bias).
And, what did I find?
I found a wealth of websites and papers.
I found Realclimate, which is an excellent resource. I especially appreciate their "data sources" page, which is an excellent resource in rebutting skeptics claims that the data isn't available. I found it, and I wasn't even trying to find it.
I found Joe Romm's "Climate Progress", which updates pretty much every day, and even if I don't always agree with his opinion, the factual summaries of various articles, etc, are an invaluable resource.
But, most of all, I found skeptical science. This is my one-stop shop for all rebuttals, and I appreciate how John Cook seems to be firm in his criticism of skeptics, but he's never insulting of them. This is refreshing compared to the tone of many, including the stuff I linked above and other stuff, covered in a recent diary of mine.
Especially helpful is the arguments page. Every argument I've heard in any debate I've had on the topic is in there, along with a well-written rebuttal. Various links also have helpful graphs and figures, such as the "sun" one.
A few of my favorites:
Solar Radiation vs Temperature
Where's all that heat going, then?
Handy if you run into a fan of Watts up with That. I'm especially appreciative of the study covered here, since it's a great example of the way proper science is conducted, especially in contrast to the poor scientific methods exhibited by Watts, who made a conclusion based on incomplete examination of the data. The poorly sited weather stations (which he claimed to have a warming bias) actually show a bias towards too cool a temperature measured(!)
Skeptical Science has a ton more. Antarctic Sea Ice, other planets are warming, you name it, they got it.
So, I have to thank the IPCC and climategate stuff for making me even more convinced that global warming is real and we should deal with it. Once I started seeing just how strong the evidence was for myself, it just made me appreciate how firmly convincing the case really is.
I also discovered that I only use my flickr account to upload pictures about climate change.