Evaluating Popular vs. Scholarly Presentations of Global Climate Change - Essay Example

Evaluating Popular vs. Scholarly Presentations of Global Climate Change Introduction: Sometimes scientific information is presented in a way that people gets easily convinced and believe wrong things. This paper will evaluate 2 popular and 2 scholarly presentations on global warming and answer some questions.Answer to the questions1. The popular presentations the article of the newspaper and the podcast are presented in an exciting manner. The title of the article is eye catching and people will tempt to read it, as it says there may be an iceless Arctic summer as early as 2040.

On the other hand the scholar presentations are presented in a factual manner, because all the information presented in the article and in the podcast are well referenced and based on the scientific evidence and experimental results.1 (a) The clearest part of the polpular article is Arctic ice will melt by 2100 due to global warming. In the podcast the description of weather and natural beauty and taste of water is clearly understood. The introduction, conclusion and the graphs of the scholarly article are the clearest parts.

Climate change will cause the arctic ice to melt and it will further cause climate change is the clearest idea I got from scholarly podcast.1 (b) Least clear part of popular article is how declines in Arctic sea-ice cover during the winter months would reduce winter precipitation. From podcast it is least clear what 40 scientists are going to do Least clear part of scholarly article is the relationship of plant growth with UV-B. Least clear part in scholarly podcast is the how general circulation model works and how accurate are the predictions 1 The term perturbation is unfamiliar to me.2. The author of the popular article warns us about the danger of global warming.

The director of the popular podcast also trying to communicate the adverse impacts of climate change, but it gives more description of nature. The writers of the scholarly articles describe how different parameters are going to impact plant growth and how the ecosystem or different plant species will adapt to the change. The scholarly podcast gives information how global temperature change will cause the arctic ice to melt and how models work. 3. The presentation style in the popular article is exaggerated and may induce fear among the people about climate change and its effects.

But it is in easy language and it is meant for the general people and they will be able to understand it. The popular podcast also trying to make people aware. The presentation in the scholarly paper comes with graphs, tables and figurers and is also clear for the intended readers. But general people may not understand all scholarly write up because of its specific and scientific nature and they are all not for all types of reader. The presentation style of scholarship podcast is good and in the format of interview (question and answer), so it can attract the attention of audience.

It gives us concept about global warming and its impact on melting of arctic ice.4. For each style of presentation use of chart, graphs, tables and photographs work well. In case of podcast, interview or dialogue works well than monologue. 5. In case of popular presentations writers do not responsibly present information and there are dangers of popularizing science. General people may have misconception about a thing and act in a wrong way. But scholarly articles or podcasts are based on scientific evidence and the risk of communicating wrong information can be avoided.6. By following factual presentation style we can draw attention of people without over dramatizing it.

Like the news headline of the article "Forecast: an iceless Arctic summer; Climate models show a seasonal melting down to open ocean by the year 2100 -- and maybe as early as 2040" could be Forecast: Melting of Arctic Ice due to global warming. Also by using graphs, charts and photographs people's attention can be drawn. Conclusions: It is very important to communicate information accurately, so that misconception among the people about any issue can't occur. This can be avoided by effective communication.

ReferencesPhoenix, G. K. and Lee, J. A. (2004). Predicting impacts of Arctic climate change: Past lessonsand future challenges, Ecological Research, 19, p 65-74.Zarembo, A. (2002, March 16). Forecast: an iceless Arctic summer; Climate models show a seasonal melting down to open ocean by the year 2100 -- and maybe as early as 2040.Los Angeles Times p.A.32.http://a.abcnews.com/podcast/050726blakemore3.mp3, accessed on 27-04-07.Interview with Marika Holland, availed at http://www.exploratorium.

edu/poles/climate.php, accesses on 27-04-07.