For thousands of years historians have measured and recorded information about the climate and as a media designer, it is important to know why. Collecting climate data has been a process followed by researchers and scientists around the world to help check for patterns and understand the impacts it has on the world. Weather and climate data has become more comprehensive after the 1960s as government and other organisations established and supported weather stations and satellites to measure regular observations. Assessment on earlier periods are scarce and tend to become more inadequate further back in time. Climate data from World War 1 and World War 2 are also known to be particularly desired due to the scarcity of personnel and resources for weather observation during the wars. Moreover, regular observation routines and distributions were interrupted and some climate data were destroyed. (Matthew S. Mayernik, Julie Huddle, Chung-Yi Hou & Jennifer Phillips, 2017)
Nowadays even the general public can gain access to climate data. In Toronto, archivists were rushed to preserve US government climate data before Donald Trump took office. Michelle Murphy who is with the University of Toronto’s Technoscience Research Unit pointed out that concerns around climate change did not end at the borders. “Things like climate change, things like water quality, things like atmospheric pollution don’t respect jurisdictional boundaries.” (BBC, 2016)
Researchers from six organisations have successfully developed an early cautionary system to aid in predicting potential water conflicts as violence associated with water grows globally. Water, Peace and Security (WPS) a global warning tool was presented to the UN security council before it was officially launched. The tool combines environmental variables such as rainfall and crop failures with political, economical and social factors to predict the risk of violent water-related conflicts up to a year in advance. Furthermore, it is the first tool of its kind to take into account environmental data, such as precipitation and drought, alongside socio-economic variables; these are known combination lacking in previous tools designed to anticipate water conflicts. The tool is available to the general public online although its primary aim is for raising awareness among policy-makers, people and parties in water stress regions. Currently, the tool has been capable of predicting conflicts to happen in 2020 in Nigeria, India, Iran, Iraq, Mali and Pakistan with a claim of 86% accuracy from the developer. (The Guardian, Saeed KD, 2020)
Climate data usually consists of one or a blend of the following products: point-based meteorological observations, gridded observations, satellite-derived estimates of climate, and simulations of climate derived from Global Climate Models or Earth System Models. (J. Suggitt, 2017) Our awareness of how the climate system functions inbuilt on a foundation of climate data. Although scientists and researchers have been the primary users of these data, an increasing number of resource managers who are working in fields such as health, public lands, water and marine resources are in need and are seeking access to climate data to help advise their decisions as policymakers are relying on climate data to develop climate change strategies. It would not be an exaggeration to claim that climate data provide the backbone for billion-dollar decisions. (Jonathan T. Overpeck, Gerald A. Meehl, Sandrine Bony, David R. Easterling, 2011) The efficiency of collecting climate data depends on skill and consciousness of the observer. Observers are responsible for maintaining the instruments, changing the charts on self – recording instruments, taking the readings every day and making weekly or monthly reports. (Linacre, 1992)
One of the major set back that occurs when it comes to climate data is data continuity. According to Texas A&M researcher Dessler “The data becomes much more valuable as the data sets get longer” As climate data are not replicable, if you were to lose measurements from the 1980s you will be unable to remeasure. The US has been ahead in gathering climate-related data but if it scales back due to policymakers and government interferences; the result would be a problem long term. “We measure sea level, gravity, and so on. If you don’t monitor these things, it’s like turning off headlights when you drive. For the first 20 feet or so it’s okay because you know what’s ahead, but at some point, you come to a curve.” (Physics Today, 2017)
Group Work
For my group work idea, I thought about an augmented reality helmet headset that helps the general public in waste management. Within the sector of waste and management it can provide the user with variety of applications such as data visualisation and communication to help the user integrate with their surrounding. We have a lot of waste in abundance and by using the AR integrated helmet, the user will be able to communicate remotely with real time access to information to perform critical parts of the job and communicate with members of the team who are near and far.
As a digital media designer, I will need to make use of my designing skills to raise awareness on climate change with the use of interactive posters and designs which can then be advertised on high traffic places such as train stations, the tube etc to engage with the audience. Creating VR and AR integrated applications can also be a vital part for a digital media designer to provide visual data on how the user can reduce and manage waste and live a more Eco-friendly lifestyle.
References
Dehghan, S. (2020). Water wars: early warning tool uses climate data to predict conflict hotspots. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jan/08/water-wars-early-warning-tool-uses-climate-data-to-predict-conflict-hotspots [Accessed 2 Jan. 2020].
Guide to climatological practices. (2011). Geneva, Switzerland: World Meteorological Organization.
Linacre, E. and Geerts, B. (1997). Climates and weather explained. London: Routledge.
Mayernik, M., Huddle, J., Hou, C. and Phillips, J. (2017). Modernizing Library Metadata for Historical Weather and Climate Data Collections. Journal of Library Metadata, 17(3-4), pp.219-239.
Overpeck, J., Meehl, G., Bony, S. and Easterling, D. (2011). Climate Data Challenges in the 21st Century. Science, 331(6018), pp.700-702.
Physicstoday-scitation-org.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk. (2017). Shibboleth Authentication Request. [online] Available at: https://physicstoday-scitation-org.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/doi/10.1063/PT.3.3491 [Accessed 10 Jan. 2020].
Suggitt, A., Platts, P., Barata, I., Bennie, J., Burgess, M., Bystriakova, N., Duffield, S., Ewing, S., Gillingham, P., Harper, A., Hartley, A., Hemming, D., Maclean, I., Maltby, K., Marshall, H., Morecroft, M., Pearce-Higgins, J., Pearce-Kelly, P., Phillimore, A., Price, J., Pyke, A., Stewart, J., Warren, R. and Hill, J. (2017). Conducting robust ecological analyses with climate data. Oikos, 126(11), pp.1533-1541.
Ukdataservice.ac.uk. (2018). UK Data Service » Environment and energy data and resources. [online] Available at: https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/themes/environment-and-energy.aspx [Accessed 3 Jan. 2020].
Professional Practices (Aby Jose) 