So where is the private provision of this information? Let's take Google for example. Of all companies, Google, which tasks itself with cataloging and making accessible the world's information, seems the most likely candidate for digitizing climate information. Yet, if one looks at Google's efforts in digitizing information - from books to locations to artwork - its pretty clear that there's a profit motive (or more specifically an advertising motive) behind most of it. What would be the private returns of digitizing climate data? Zilch, unless you count the handful of academics that would use the data - but that's just a handful of adSense clicks from poor researchers.
Its a classic case for government funding. This is information that can potentially change the way we think about anthropogenic climate change. It's out there and yet there are few incentives or efforts to digitize it (with some notable exceptions). Of the deluge of information that's out there, shouldn't this rank higher than the latest celebrity tweet?
note: figure from Brohan P (2009) Why historical climate and weather observations matter? In: ACRE data and data visualisation meeting. Exeter Meeting, 15 September 2009. Available at: www.met-acre.org/meetings-and-workshops-1/acre-dataand-visualisation-meeting
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