On the IPCC
The IPCC just released a damning report. The bad news: it’s bad. The good news: we all have a part to play.
As if the Delta variant and Greece + Northern California being on fire isn’t enough…..The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC just released the most striking report on humans’ impact on climate change since 2013. But before we get into that, let’s get some basic questions out of the way.
Who is the IPCC and why do we listen to them?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. The IPCC was created to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments on climate change, its implications, and potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation options.
Through its assessments, the IPCC determines the state of knowledge on climate change. It identifies where there is agreement in the scientific community on topics related to climate change, and where further research is needed. The reports are drafted and reviewed in several stages, thus guaranteeing objectivity and transparency. The IPCC does not conduct its own research. IPCC reports are neutral, policy-relevant but not policy-prescriptive.
The assessment reports are a key input into the international negotiations to tackle climate change. Created by the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988, the IPCC has 195 Member countries.
Where can I find the report for myself?
You can access a synthesized version of the report here. Although it’s titled “Summary for Policymakers”, I truly do believe that it is accessible for anyone who is not a policymaker (or policy nerd such as myself). Don’t read it alone! Rally up a group of friends and disperse pages among peers so that each person can break down a specific part.
If you want the report in full, check it out here! Warning: it’s pretty close to 4,000 pages compared to the Summary which is 42 pages.
I’m pretty sure you’ve seen the headlines:
The Atlantic | It’s Grim: The latest UN report is clear: Climate change is here, it’s a crisis, and it’s caused by fossil fuels.
The Guardian | Major climate changes inevitable and irreversible – IPCC’s starkest warning yet
The Conversation | IPCC climate report: Profound changes are underway in Earth’s oceans and ice – a lead author explains what the warnings mean
NPR | A Major Report Warns Climate Change Is Accelerating And Humans Must Cut Emissions Now
The New York Times | A Hotter Future Is Certain, Climate Panel Warns. But How Hot Is Up to Us.
The Economist | The IPCC delivers its starkest warning about the world’s climate
It is true that the report is grim, but I like this response to the report from climate scientist Dr. Kate Marvel:
We have indisputable evidence that climate change is an urgent threat and with this report, we have information to both propose climate goals for states within their borders, while informing bold and ambitious climate policy for the international community.
Yes, we need our political actors to move swiftly (which reminds me, call your representatives and call into the Senate to let them know that you care about the climate crisis and want your members of government to support bold action in mitigating any and all threats), but we have a role to play as well.
No, we don’t expect everyone to be perfectly sustainable, but we do need to get imaginative. We need to make sacrifices, and we need to strive to live as ethically as possible even if we are imperfect along the way. We need to vote out the people who are still denying the facts and are choosing to move too slowly. We can act quickly and still be deliberate. We need people in the decision-making roles who are bold, and who can listen.
It is clear now that we don’t have the choice to do otherwise.
“We can no longer assume that citizens of more affluent and secure countries like Canada, Germany, Japan, and the US will be able to ride-out the worst excesses of a rapidly destabilizing climate,” says Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy. “It’s clear we’re all in the same boat – facing a challenge that will affect every one of us within our lifetimes.”
One last thing!
Can I encourage you to get your climate news elsewhere? Some of the biggest publications like The New York Times, and The Washington Post, for example, are really good at reporting on the world’s problems. But when it comes to reporting on solutions, some of the top dogs in journalism are awfully bad at it.
According to the Solutions Journalism Network: “Solutions stories outperform problem-focused news; are more interesting, trustworthy, and uplifting; and inspire people to get involved.”
Here are some of my favorite publications as it pertains to more hopeful, solutions-based journalism in the climate science world.
Grist | Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Our goal is to use the power of storytelling to illuminate the way toward a better world, inspire millions of people to walk that path with us, and show that the time for action is now.
Inside Climate News | Founded in 2007, Inside Climate News is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that provides essential reporting and analysis on climate change, energy and the environment, for the public and for decision-makers. We serve as watchdogs of government, industry, and advocacy groups and hold them accountable for their policies and actions.
Circle of Blue | There are better ways to manage the water needs of people and planet and for over a decade, Circle of Blue has informed their discovery. Its trusted reporting has enhanced climate agreements, urban policy and citizen activity, and it has inspired collaboration from Davos to Beijing, from Washington to the Vatican.
Circle of Blue unites classic journalism, data literacy and transformative connectivity. Its visionary work across the Great Lakes, U.S., China, Australia, Mexico, India and the Middle East earned the Rockefeller Centennial Innovation Award, one of the nation’s top honors.
Circle of Blue meets the demand for information and collaboration in the challenge of the century: water.
Civil Eats | Civil Eats is a daily news source for critical thought about the American food system. We publish stories that shift the conversation around sustainable agriculture in an effort to build economically and socially just communities.
Mongabay | Mongabay is a nonprofit environmental science and conservation news platform that produces original reporting in English, Indonesian, Spanish, French, Hindi, and Brazilian Portuguese by leveraging over 800 correspondents in some 70 countries. We are dedicated to evidence-driven objective journalism.
Our main beats are forests, wildlife, oceans, and the conservation sector. We also undertake special reporting projects, which are deep dives on specific topics and geographies.
Deep Indigo Collective | Deep Indigo Collective is a nonprofit, independent news organization committed to the use of visual storytelling as an essential tool in reporting on the most urgent issue of our lifetime.
Our mission is to provide truthful visual documentation informing discussion around climate change and environmental issues. In an era of diminished local reporting resources, Deep Indigo Collective provides visual context as the climate crisis becomes pronounced within news-vulnerable communities. The formation of the nonprofit counters the extensive loss of reliable visual content across the US media market at a time when images drive web-based news and social media platforms.
The nonprofit’s investment in community-focused visual storytelling across the United States offers our partners a powerful tool in delivering far-reaching content to audiences. Through these efforts, we address the shortcomings left behind by the loss of staff photographers, videographers, and editors from visual departments in US newsrooms, in addition to industry-wide reductions to coverage areas, editorials resources, and budgets.
The pressure is on and it’s time to get to action!
cover image by https://unsplash.com/@usgs
August 13th, 2021 Edit:
I just got a newsletter from The Solutions Journalism Network that perfectly encapsulates my feelings right now:
“At SJN, we say, "Problems shout, solutions whisper." Well, climate change is pretty much screaming in our face. The release of the U.N. climate report this week means the shouts are even louder than normal, with headlines seemingly factory-built to scare the hell out of you.
As for the whispers, climate journalist Kendra Pierre-Louis rightly predicted that “the fact that there are things we can do about it will be relegated to maybe a paragraph, more likely a sentence.” This points to a pressing journalistic paradox: The bigger the problem, the more journalists need to shift their reporting to responses. That goes against journalism's impulse to investigate and reiterate what’s wrong ad nauseum. But the public is well aware of the threat of climate change. They don’t know nearly as much about what’s being done to combat it, and what they themselves can do.”