Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Climate change

Climate change

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page.

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/October 31, 2021 by Jimfbleak - talk to me?  10:15, 27 September 2021 (UTC)



Human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are raising global temperatures resulting in large-scale weather changes. Most emissions come from burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas), with further contributions from deforestation, agriculture and some industrial processes. Climate change drives sea level rise, glacial retreat, desertification, and intensifies heat waves, wildfires and storms. These changes endanger food security, freshwater access and global health. Climate change can be limited with low-carbon energy such as wind and solar, preservation of forests, and a shift in agriculture. While people can adapt to climate change—with coastline protection, disaster management, and drought-resistant crops—adaptation alone cannot avert the risk of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts. Preventing the worst effects of climate change would require halving emissions by 2030 and achieving near-zero emissions by 2050.
 * Most recent similar article(s): Ran on June 21, 2006.
 * Main editors: Editors with over 500 edits: Femkemilene, William M. Connolley, UBeR, Stephan Schulz, Raymond arritt
 * Promoted: May 17, 2006, however it underwent a FAR completed on January 21, 2021.
 * Reasons for nomination: Opening date of COP26 (2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference).
 * Support as nominator. CMD (talk) 10:43, 22 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Support Chidgk1 (talk) 12:37, 22 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Comment; it's a great picture, but I think, in full honesty, that it needs a blurb. Panini! 🥪 12:40, 22 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Have not figured out how to do blurb yet - thought I had better get it in under the date before any zombies appear Chidgk1 (talk) 12:44, 22 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Oh! Pardon what looked like satire, I thought it was just an accident. Go into edit mode, and right before the part you'll see where I put the word "example". Replace that with a short overview of the article, between 925 to 1025 characters.  Panini! 🥪 12:54, 22 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks. So I just copied the first 2 paras as one, unbolded "global warming" and removed refs. It is slightly over limit - must I shorten? Should I do anything else - like make it end on a kind of hook? Chidgk1 (talk) 13:07, 22 September 2021 (UTC)
 * I would try summarizing the first two paragraphs in a shorter length, so you can include the third and fourth paragraphs as well. I'd also add a caption to the image; the code wasn't in there at first, so I added it in for you. See where I wrote the "example" again, so switch that out with a descriptor of what the image highlights. Panini! 🥪 13:13, 22 September 2021 (UTC)
 * I have made an attempt above - hopefully other members of the project will improve it Chidgk1 (talk) 13:38, 22 September 2021 (UTC)


 * Support Keres🌑(talk • ctb) 19:14, 22 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Support A topic of world importance at a critical time (COP26), and an article that has recently passed Featured Article Review. — RCraig09 (talk) 20:46, 22 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Support, not quite happy with blurb  The blurb and lede do have some problems we should sort out, including a sentence about feedbacks that could easily be interpreted as climate denial (we seem to claim feedbacks may possibly temper temperature rise overall), and I dislike putting that quote about adaptation in blurb, we should rephrase in own words. FemkeMilene (talk) 22:05, 22 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Oppose doesn't exist Great Mercian (talk) 15:06, 23 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Your Mercian indoor Snowdome doesn't have too much competition from real snow at Aviemore these days I guess Chidgk1 (talk) 18:46, 23 September 2021 (UTC)
 * We obviously need to run this as TFA every year ;) Clayoquot (talk &#124; contribs) 19:10, 26 September 2021 (UTC)


 * Comment: I get that this is not a topic easily condensed to a few sentences, but the guidelines state that "The length [of the blurb] when previewed is between 925 and 1025 characters including spaces and the " (Full article...)"". The current length is 1,375, 134% of the maximum length. IceWelder  &#91; &#9993; &#93; 18:53, 24 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Challenge accepted. Shouldn't be too hard I don't think. FemkeMilene (talk) 21:12, 24 September 2021 (UTC)
 * It pains my heart, but I have boldly removed mention of · feedback and · land>global temp increase, since they're internal to the climate system and not a cause or effect of interest to lay readers. I've extensively reorganized concepts to consolidate "lists" that were dispersed around the paragraph. By the count at JavaScriptKit.com, we're now down to 1,022 characters— not including the image caption. — RCraig09 (talk) 04:34, 25 September 2021 (UTC)
 * I agree that those were less important. I think it's poor prose quality to have a list exceed far more than 3 items. The first sentence doesn't distinguish between the concept (raised T + large scale weather changes) and the physical impacts. I'll have a go. FemkeMilene (talk) 06:53, 25 September 2021 (UTC)
 * You FemkeMilene have done an excellent job of ordering the concepts: (1) definition, (2) causes, (3) effects, (4) mitigation, (5) adaptation, and (6) goals. Since you brought the word count down to 988 characters, I've added " (coal, oil, natural gas)" which brings it up to 1013 characters :-) and added some internal links. Regrettably I left out the important, " desertification", as that would put us over the 1025 limit. — RCraig09 (talk) 17:08, 25 September 2021 (UTC)
 * tweaked to add desertification Chidgk1 (talk) 17:53, 25 September 2021 (UTC)


 * Support. The recent tightening looks great and it's good to see the part about net zero by 2050 get in. Some further possible adjustments: Land use change should probably be mentioned as a cause of emissions, distinct from agricultural emissions. I'll try some wording. Clayoquot (talk &#124; contribs) 19:10, 26 September 2021 (UTC)


 * Alternative image proposal: I've been thinking of proposing this for the main article for a while. It works better at smaller sizes and I love how it conveys calmness and urgency at the same time. This is a Featured Picture on Commons. Clayoquot (talk &#124; contribs) 20:35, 26 September 2021 (UTC)

Preview with text here: User:Clayoquot/Stripes Clayoquot (talk &#124; contribs) 20:38, 26 September 2021 (UTC)


 * As main editor of the Warming stripes article, I definitely appreciate the value of that graphic in communicating basic global warming to non-scientists. However, the graphic is "new" (relatively) and did not survive consensus for long a couple of years ago when I introduced it to the main CC/GW article. People resist what they interpret as "new". The purpose of a feature article is to make readers quickly appreciate the content of the article, which is not achieved if the image has to be explained to them; we simply don't have the space to quickly bring them up to speed. — RCraig09 (talk) 04:02, 27 September 2021 (UTC)