IPCC First Assessment - What we can learn from a 30 year old report
30 years have passed since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) produced its First Assessment Report (FAR). How far have we come in the fight against climate change? This post discusses the report by the Working Group II - the one that discusses impacts of climate change . If you're interested in the report by the Working Group I - the one that discusses the reasons behind climate change - go here . Working Group II (Impacts) In the words of the authors themselves, " the responsibility of Working Group II is to describe the environmental and socioeconomic implications of possible climate changes over the next decades caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases ." This addresses a pernicious climate myth -- that the IPCC reports are written by scientists alone. I've been told that the world doesn't run like lab simulations and that scientists should not comment on policy matters because economic and social considerations are also import