The scientists published a landmark report on the state of climate change science, a huge undertaking that was years in the making and whose influence will be felt for years to come. The report, by the UN’s climate science panel, the IPCC, was prsented in Stockholm on September 27.
FULL REPORT
A copy of the full report in PDF form can be found HERE.
The report is said to be crucially important as it is a wake-up call, if ever one was needed, on the need to make massive changes to how people live on Earth. As the UK government’s chief scientist Mark Walport put it, speaking on a radio program:
– Extremely important moment
– The evidence is absolutely rock solid
– There is actually a right answer to the question of whether humans are contributing the climate change
– I think the terminology of global warming, climate warming isn’t the right one it is actually climate disruption
– We do know that we’ve emitted half a trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide
– The issue is that scientists have got to communcate this
– There are some people who don’t want to confront the policy decisions and the easiest way to do that is to rubbish the science.
Climate change deniers have in fact been busy trying to rubbish the science and this is one of the reasons why there is still uncertainty amongst some of the public and in the corridors of power over what steps to take to tackle the challenge.
As journalist Fiona Harvey says: “The world is warming, and we are to blame. Already some of the results of this are “unprecedented” and dangerous. If we continue to pour greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the levels of warming will cause severe problems around the globe, and could soon be catastrophic.
“If the message seems one that has been heard before – scientists have been reporting for more than two decades on the threat of climate change – the import is still of huge significance. Forging a clear agreement on the science of such a vast and complex issue as the whole future of the planet and its life-support systems is no small endeavour, and the report from Stockholm draws on the work of more than 800 scientists and hundreds of research papers.”
The challenge will be how governments and people act to deal with the growing crisis.
