Why this institute exists

To gather (scientific) data on climate parameters and to present this information in a manner which facilitates an understanding of this complicated issue by the general public.

1. 1.Develop, compile and interpret climate change information to help bring about societal understanding.
2. 2.Develop public awareness of the issue and request that it be addressed by our elected leaders.
3. 3.Participate in defining a new, sustainable local economy.
4. 4.Link State Energy Agencies with Chambers of Commerce, building professionals, and citizens.
5. 5.Utilize existing data, and report new data as needed, to help bring about changes in perception, attitudes, and understanding that result in action.

Every month since April 2009, Raymond N. Johnson has written a column called Climate Science, published in the Plattsburgh Press-Republican and here. Each one takes a single question — what the carbon dioxide record shows, why the Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else, what happened to the price of solar power — and answers it from the measurements, in plain language, with the sources named.

Alongside the columns we publish reports, keep the Climate Commons collection of sources, and speak to schools, colleges and community groups across northern New York.

Latest column We All Love Records of Some Sort: But Newer Climate Ones Are Not So Good October 2026

Every column names its sources. The reports, papers and books behind the columns are kept in the ICSUSA Climate Science Research Library, so readers can check them for themselves.

Facts are checked against the agencies, journals and data sets that produced them before anything is posted. Ray’s columns appear here exactly as he wrote them; anything else on the site found to be wrong is corrected.

ICSUSA is run by three volunteers. It has no funders, accepts no donations and carries no advertising.

Ray speaks to classrooms, college courses, service clubs, libraries and community groups, mostly in the North Country and the Champlain Valley. Talks are built around the audience: a middle-school assembly, a college seminar and a Rotary lunch are not the same talk.

New York’s Board of Regents adopted a climate education requirement in March 2026, and talks for schools can be shaped around it.

To arrange a talk, write to info@icsusa.org with the audience, the date and roughly how long you would like.

• Climate Science on Substack · each new column by email
• Columns feed · RSS, for feed readers
• Updates · everything published, newest first

To cite a column Johnson, R. N. (2026, October). We All Love Records of Some Sort: But Newer Climate Ones Are Not So Good. Climate Science. Institute of Climate Studies, USA. https://icsusa.org/october-2026-we-all-love-records-of-some-sort-but-newer-climate-ones-are-not-so-good/

• 
  Raymond N. Johnson, Ph.D.Founder and Director · Chazy, New York

  Ray’s scientific career spanned 30 years in research and development as an organic/analytical chemist. He founded the Institute of Climate Studies, USA in Chazy in 2008, and since April 2009 he has written its monthly Climate Science column for the Plattsburgh Press-Republican and this site, now more than 200 columns. The reports and studies behind those columns form the core of the ICSUSA Climate Science Research Library. He speaks across the region and is the reason the institute exists.

• 
  Scott DanvilleScience Research & Content Curator/Editor · Plattsburgh, New York

  A New York State AP Environmental Science and Earth Science teacher, in the classroom for more than 30 years, and a New York State Master Teacher Emeritus. He produced the film Halting Hades and looks after this site.

• 
  Lauren E. Eastwood, Ph.D.Research Contributor · Plattsburgh, New York

  Professor of Sociology at SUNY Plattsburgh. An environmental sociologist, she attends United Nations climate, biodiversity and Indigenous-issues meetings to study how environmental policy is actually negotiated, and researches natural gas extraction and the communities it affects. Author of Negotiating the Environment: Civil Society, Globalisation, and the UN (Routledge, 2019). Ph.D., Syracuse University.

info@icsusa.org
P.O. Box 329, Chazy, New York 12921

The institute is run by volunteers. Corrections, questions and invitations are all welcome at that address.