Friday, April 6, 2007

The IPCC has hit the fan

As expected, the reaction to the release of the report on "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability" ranged from the responsible scientific to the politically expedient. The wording had been modified over the past few days to soothe the fears of those (like the U.S. and China) who feared that people would become so alarmed as to curtail the means of production and wealth generation. We are being told by the more purely scientific sources that the language of the release was watered down.

Nevertheless, the warnings do come across strongly and nations ignore them at their peril. We'll be visiting the particulars of the report over the next few days. There's more press about climate change this week than I've ever seen in such a short period of time. For a while, at least, we can expect to feel the affects of such concentrated attention. But again, we'll be looking for evidence of actual action toward mitigation, not just concern and hand-wringing.

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