{"id":22466,"date":"2012-06-29T12:33:45","date_gmt":"2012-06-29T19:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=22466"},"modified":"2012-06-29T12:33:45","modified_gmt":"2012-06-29T19:33:45","slug":"talking-climate-online-in-real-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/06\/29\/talking-climate-online-in-real-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Climate, Online in Real Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stanford professor is using new tools to hang out and chat
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Stanford professor Noah Diffenbaugh is using real time, online video chat to engage the public in discussions of climate science.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Noah Diffenbaugh, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Earth System Science<\/a>\u00a0at Stanford, has focused largely on climate variability and the influence of humans on the global climate system. Lately, he’s also being spending time in the cloud.<\/p>\n

In April, he launched an online discussion forum called Hangouts on Air<\/a>, in which participants from anywhere around the world (with a broadband connection, that is) can participate in real-time online discussions about climate.<\/p>\n

Participation has been limited in these first months, but Diffenbaugh says the model holds promise for engaging the public on the complex, contentious and rapidly evolving issues in climate science. He agreed to answer some questions for Climate Watch<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Miller:<\/strong>\u00a0How did you come up with Hangouts on Air and the idea to use online, real-time discussion to engage the public on the topic of climate science?<\/p>\n

Noah Diffenbaugh:\u00a0<\/strong>I haven\u2019t had a blog or been on social media prior to the Hangouts on Air. The hangouts, technologically, have afforded some opportunities for communication that don\u2019t exist in other venues. It allows for direct interaction with people all over the world.<\/p>\n