CLIMATE SCIENCE Leaves the Lab

A chemist at Stockholm University first scrawled out equations describing the greenhouse effect in 1896. Since then climate science has steadily advanced largely at research institutions and government agencies. They were the only places with the expertise, interest and budgets to fund research into geophysics and, later, computer models that simulated climatic changes.

Those barriers to entry have given way in recent years as the cost of computing plummeted and cloud-based services arose, making it easier to explore real geophysical observations and sophisticated climate models. And a vast audience outside of academia is finally focused on climate change— specifically, what it might portend for businesses, real estate holdings, supply chains or cities. As climate science has moved out of the lab, private companies and nonprofits offering insights to decision-makers have proliferated, and demand for useful information will only grow in 2023.