Climate Shifts Round-up for 2009

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As 2010 begins, we figured it was an apt time to do a round-up of 2009 here it at Climate Shifts. It has been an exciting year – we enlisted several new bloggers, created 327 posts and greatly expanded our readership. With thirteen scientists and experts in the field of coral reefs and climate change writing commentaries, the blog is expanding to a considerable expertise.

Since we moved to more reliable servers (carbon-netural green hosting!) at the end of September we’ve had 10,539 unique visitors with over 35,572 page views (excluding bots). We’ve had people from 152 countries/territories from from 2,628 cities reading our posts:

In other news, the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland officially commenced on January 1st 2010 under the guidance of Ove, and John is heading down under to Brisbane with his family for a sabbatical at UQ. Onwards to 2010! We are planning some changes for next year and would really appreciate hearing from you what type of content you want us to provide.

See below for a few stats from our plugins (again since September) – seems that the notorious Andrew Bolt post drew a few deniers out of the woodwork with 2578 views and 48 comments.

most rated posts

  1. COP15: Cold and grey but buzzing with excitement and hope. 472 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5472 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5472 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5472 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5472 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5 (5.00 out of 5)
  2. “Macro-algal dominated coral reefs: shake that ASS” 4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 54 votes, average: 5.00 out of 54 votes, average: 5.00 out of 54 votes, average: 5.00 out of 54 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5 (5.00 out of 5)
  3. More climate delusionism and questionable science 3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 53 votes, average: 5.00 out of 53 votes, average: 5.00 out of 53 votes, average: 5.00 out of 53 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5 (5.00 out of 5)
  4. Humpty dumpty and the ghosts 3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 53 votes, average: 5.00 out of 53 votes, average: 5.00 out of 53 votes, average: 5.00 out of 53 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5 (5.00 out of 5)
  5. Testing the ‘macroalgal dominated coral reefs’ paradigm 2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5 (5.00 out of 5)
  6. Local stressors act to reduce the resilience of corals to bleaching events 2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5 (5.00 out of 5)
  7. Maldives President Calls Underwater Meeting 2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5 (5.00 out of 5)
  8. Hot Pink Beasties of the Deep 2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5 (5.00 out of 5)
  9. Preservation of coral reefs: why isn’t the majority heard? 2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5 (5.00 out of 5)
  10. Corals likely to starve in a high CO2 world 2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 52 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5(5.00 out of 5)

most viewed posts

  1. Happy Birthday to… Andrew Bolt! – 2,578 views
  2. “Macro-algal dominated coral reefs: shake that ASS” – 1,593 views
  3. The never-ending jellyfish joyride – 1,511 views
  4. “Great Barrier Reef could adapt to climate change, scientists say” – Facts, fallacies and fanciful thinking. – 1,126 views
  5. Why the existence of ‘heat tolerant’ corals does not mean that coral reefs will be able to resist climate change. – 1,096 views
  6. PLoS One: an open access venue for coral reef science – 955 views
  7. ExxonMobil still funding climate change sceptics – 893 views
  8. The coral reef crisis: The critical importance of <350 ppm CO2 – 843 views
  9. Catch of the day: invasive lionfish – 814 views
  10. Doom and Boom on a Resilient Reef: Climate Change, Algal Overgrowth and Coral Recovery – 784 views

There is so much great science being done in the oceans, on coral reefs and on climate change and so many important policy debates, it can be overwhelming trying to keep up and cover it all.  Luckily there are a number of awesome online resources, at least regarding climate change.  Below is a list of our favorites, in no particular order:

  • RealClimate: An amazing resource from real climate scientists.  The comments can be very educational too.
  • Skeptical Science: The webs best debunker of denier myths.
  • All the Peter Sinclair videos (which can be seen here and on YouTube)
  • ClimateProgress (a very thorough coverage of climate change policy and science, even though Joe verges on hysteria at times)
  • Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice and Sunsets:  Always interesting and informative commentary from a boots on the ground coral reef conservation scientist.
  • Deltoid: Tim Lambert tells it how it is
  • David Horton: David blogs about the environment and social justice here and on the Huff Post here
  • Monbiot.com: A collection of George Monbiot’s provocative essays

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