Since the Skeptical Science heat widget was released just over a month ago, over one million unique visitors have seen the widget at more than sixty blogs and web sites. Currently, the widget is being picked up by at least one new blog each day.Since the Skeptical Science heat widget was released just over a month ago, over one million unique visitors have seen the widget at more than sixty blogs and web sites. Currently, the widget is being picked up by at least one new blog each day.
Hover over any blog image for a closer look.
Click on any blog image to visit that blog.
Many of the early adopters of the widget are blogs that are directly related to climate change, but more and more websites with everyday interests are adding it to their own blogs. This is helping raise awareness of the basic fact that our planet continues to build up astounding amounts of heat.
You can find the widget on Wunderground in a wintery gray, DeSmogBlog in coal black, and Greg Laden's science blog in its original hot red.
It's hosted on Stone Soup Station, a site that focuses on hunger and poverty. It's hosted on ZLC Energy, a company specializing in clean energy solutions. It's hosted by Jean on On The Road Again, which is just a blog about whatever Jean wants to write about. It's hosted by the Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation, which, in their words, "promotes environmentally sustainable, socially just, multi-modal transportation that provides affordable access and regional connections to all race and income groups."
You can also find it on blogs from 17 different countries, from Finland to Slovakia to New Zealand.
In fact, one innovative person is even using the regularly updated image of the widget as a forum avatar. A few others have used the live widget in their forum signatures, so the widget itself appears on every comment they post.
Many people have applauded the ease with which the widget can be installed. The site for doing so allows a visitor to customize the widget, choosing their preferred color and customizing other options, such as the size of the widget itself and the starting date for the counter.
A user can then select their blog host from a menu, and the user will be taken step-by-step through the process of installing the widget, complete with screen captures to help the user find the right controls on their blog host's dashboard.
If you'd like to use the widget as an avatar, you can easily get a direct link to the regularly updated images at the widget site. We've now created images scaled for use as avatars and added functionality to let you do so. Just go to the widget site, choose your color, click the Generate button, and choose Avatar from the options.
To use the widget in your forum signature, simply copy/paste the same code generated for a blog.
The widget demonstrates the accumulation of energy, second by second, in the climate system. It actively shows readers that whether they are driving or reading a blog or even sleeping, the accumulation of energy continues unabated.
The point behind the widget is to make people more conscious of the reality of global warming. One climate myth that has surged in popularity over the last year has been the incorrect notion that global warming has stopped. People can only subscribe to this myth by ignoring the fact that the greenhouse effect continues to blaze away and our planet continues to build up heat. Each time another blog hosts the Heat Widget, the planet's total heat build-up becomes more difficult to ignore.
Ignoring the problem now is not going to make it go away, and it's not going to make it easier. The widget is designed to convey the constant, unceasing accumulation of a huge amount of energy by the climate system. It is intended to make people aware of how very big a deal climate change is. It is meant to keep climate change at the forefront of people's minds, giving it the attention that it deserves, because whether we take action or not, whether people recognize it or not, it is happening, at a frightening pace and without pause.
So if you have a blog or web site of any sort — not necessarily a climate blog — consider adding the widget. Help to communicate what is happening. Help to make people aware that there is no "pause," that climate change is not "a little thing," and that waiting until things get really, really bad simply isn't an option.
Posted by Bob Lacatena on Wednesday, 15 January, 2014
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