Presented by: Degrees Rising
Project Goal: Use NASA climate data to engage public in climate change discussions.
Moustafa Abdou
The City College of New York
Olga Kent
CUNY Hunter College
olgakent.ok@gmail.com
https://github.com/olgakent
Hugo Meza
The City College of New York
hgmeza114@gmail.com
https://github.com/hgmeza
Neal Rea
The City College of New York
nealrea818@gmail.com
https://github.com/nealrea
Climate change is real and it is happening right now. While the vast majority of scientists and politicians agree that the Earth cycles through natural changes in climate throughout time, the debate on the significance of anthropogenic (human) effects on climate change is at the center of a growing rift between the political and scientific communities. Scientists have compelling evidence that human interactions with the planet are indeed contributing to and compounding the natural climate cycles of the Earth. It is crucial that we work to create new distribution methods of this information so that the public can be informed and politicians can enact legislation to contain and control anthropogenic contributions to climate change.
The scientific community is always seeking new methods for content distribution in an effort to convey important climate information to as many user groups as possible. While some distribution media do currently exist, our project which will still be highly valued by anyone working in climate science. In addition to content distribution, this project will give users the opportunity to communicate with one another via a comment posting structure. The ability to start a dialogue between users is crucial to the advancement of the anthropogenic emission regulation agenda.
Using NASA climate simulation data from the Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS), we will create user-interactive visualizations that show how various diagnostic fluctuations (i.e. surface temperature, precipitation, etc.) change over time with and without regulations on anthropogenic emissions. Users will be able to specify which diagnostic to visualize, as well as toggle between anthropogenic regulation modes. In addition, users will have the ability to communicate via a comment posting structure.
This application will require two user-types, the consumer and the content-creator (admin). The consumer will be able to interact with the application to understand the anthropogenic effects on climate change. They will have the ability to toggle between two different data modes (with and without gas emission regulations), and then select a parameter for the visualization (i.e. temperature, precipitation, etc.). In addition, consumers will be able to post comments to communicate with other users. The content-creator will have all the same abilities as the consumer with additional admin rights, including the ability to monitor and manage the comment board.
As a consumer, I can select which diagnostic to view and toggle between two data modes so that my preferred visualization is projected. I can then create and post a comment so that my opinion is available for others to view.
As a content-creator, I can monitor the comment board and delete inappropriate or spam comments so that the integrity of the project mission is preserved.