Internet Convictions

Both of these websites have the possibility to convince viewers of their perspectives at first glance. However, both sites become less convincing with further viewing. On its homepage, the Grist website seems to hold a wealth of information, but as you scroll down the website, you notice that it is the same posts arranged into different categories. Also, the site is maintained by someone whose credentials are, "Former musician, turned tree planter, turned software engineer. Same old story... I have been blogging about climate change since 2006 at A Few Things Ill Considered." These are hardly reputable credentials and don't present significant scientific evidence. The Grist website could have been assembled by anyone with a computer and ability to Google search. It seems that the website is geared towards people who already believe in climate change and and need to be able to present their arguments to those who are skeptical or who don't believe. It is helpful in the sense that the author links to many other sources, but again, the author himself has no valid scientific credentials, making him not an authoritative source.

The Friends of Science website has a few user-friendly positives. Meant for the climate skeptic, the site is nice because a wealth of articles that support its viewpoint and many of them are ranked on a star scale from 1-3 for technicality. This means that people will have an easier time getting through the website based on their prior knowledge of climate issues. However, upon closer inspection, the website can be easily discredited. One of the scrolling quotes across the top talks of the "Kyototo" Protocol. The name of the website is ironic as well, since "Friends of Science" would normally be assumed to discuss how global warming is happening and is serious, since that's what the majority of the science tells us. A graph on the first page that is used to try and show lower global temperatures and CO2 levels is misinterpreted by the site. They use a best fit line for CO2 concentration that shows it barely declining between 1999 and 2007 but the rest of the graph clearly shows that the concentration level has increased substantially since 1979.

Overall, neither website is particularly credible, although Friends of Science simply looks more professional. The Grist website perhaps has better information and the data it presents are not as easily discredited as Friends of Science.