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Pause for thought

Nature Climate Change volume 4, pages 154–156 (2014)Cite this article

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The recent slowdown (or 'pause') in global surface temperature rise is a hot topic for climate scientists and the wider public. We discuss how climate scientists have tried to communicate the pause and suggest that 'many-to-many' communication offers a key opportunity to directly engage with the public.

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Figure 1: The role of variability in global temperatures.
Figure 2: Global internet search trends.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all those who have contributed to the many fascinating discussions that have helped form our thoughts on communicating complex climate issues on blogs and twitter. We also acknowledge useful suggestions from several other climate scientists that helped improve this Commentary. This Commentary represents the personal opinions of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Meteorology, Ed Hawkins is at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6BB, UK, (twitter: @ed_hawkins),

    Ed Hawkins

  2. Tamsin Edwards is at the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK, (twitter: @flimsin),

    Tamsin Edwards

  3. Doug McNeall is at the Met Office Hadley Centre, FitzRoy Road, Exeter EX1 3PB, UK, (twitter: @dougmcneall),

    Doug McNeall

Authors
  1. Ed Hawkins
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  2. Tamsin Edwards
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  3. Doug McNeall
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Correspondence to Ed Hawkins.

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Hawkins, E., Edwards, T. & McNeall, D. Pause for thought. Nature Clim Change 4, 154–156 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2150

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