Coordinator:
Martin O'CONNOR

V GAS Virtual Library

The V GAS Virtual Library (VL) aims at showing further information about climate change related issues, namely scenarios developed by institutions such as the IPCC. It is a massive compilation of information about climate change translated into five languages (English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish).

The V GAS Virtual Library is accessible by the V GAS players through the 3D world house, in which books of a library represent the 6 topics available.

• Climate Change Policy - which includes the most relevant Policy marks, the tools used in Policy making, and several positions of Policy makers concerning Climate Change;
• Some History - A chronological reference to Climate Change since 1827;
• Greenhouse Effect - With references to Earth's Global Energy Balance, the Principal Natural and Anthropogenic Causes and their Uncertainty, and to the Physical Evidences;
• Climate Change Dubiety - Some controversy papers are available, to give a wide view to users about the complexity of the issue in question, allowing them to form an opinion. Some links to further research are also available to a deeper research;
• Physical Phenomena Behind Climate Change - An overview of the principal Greenhouse Gases and gases with indirect effect, as well their importance in the Greenhouse Effect, and interaction between themselves;
• Visions of the Future - Scenarios, Models, Uncertainties and the predicted impacts in a Global and Regional Level

For each of these topics, users may find images, charts, animations, tables and full papers. Users have also available some educational links, lifestyles tips, and a glossary with more than 600 entries related with Climate Change (including a search engine by keyword).

The design of the Virtual Library was based on the principle of progressive disclosure of information, i.e. users' information needs determine the ways in which the information is explored (from simple descriptions to more detailed information). The information is supplied in layers of increasing specialisation, depending on actors' interests and necessary specialised information.