IPCC climate report is 'code red for humanity'(bbc.co.uk)
bbc.co.uk
IPCC climate report is 'code red for humanity'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58130705
3 comments
The point of this report isn't to convince denialists. That ship, as you note, has long since sailed.
This is a report to governments, quantifying the damage based on the most recent models. It's designed to help guide policy and international coordination -- the kinds of problems you get to after you've gotten past the "waah, it's not happening and if it is it's not my fault" tantrum.
We on the Internet are busily engaging that tantrum, but we're not really scientists, at least not climate scientists. The climate scientists are several steps ahead, doing real work. We're stuck re-litigating long-ago battles with non-scientists because non-scientists don't hold themselves to any scientific standard. They can deny forever, and by their own rules, they're winning.
This is a report to governments, quantifying the damage based on the most recent models. It's designed to help guide policy and international coordination -- the kinds of problems you get to after you've gotten past the "waah, it's not happening and if it is it's not my fault" tantrum.
We on the Internet are busily engaging that tantrum, but we're not really scientists, at least not climate scientists. The climate scientists are several steps ahead, doing real work. We're stuck re-litigating long-ago battles with non-scientists because non-scientists don't hold themselves to any scientific standard. They can deny forever, and by their own rules, they're winning.
Climate scientists are desperate to find contrary evidence. With the scientific method, this won't ever change. So far there are metareports from UN here, and being updated now:
https://www.ipcc.ch/reports/
https://www.ipcc.ch/reports/
Related ongoing thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28113821
Instead, I think scientists should focus on the lucid and work on providing actionable ideas for reducing CO2 production. I appreciate this isn't necessarily everyone's primary vocation or area of expertise. But at this point trying to convince more people, via lengthy reports no less, that Climate Change is real is just counter-productive.
Politicians are ultimately lazy, or at best, easily distracted - this is much of the success behind lobbying. Give them a ready policy, write them a speech and a report that argues it's the right thing, and they'll champion it as their own brainchild. They'll do the boring things politicians need to do - build support, trade horses, ensure even reduction of CO2 by congressional district or whatever. But the change becomes real.
Give them an important, but abstract idea, they'll nod their heads and move on.