My posts from yesterday and the day before turned out to be perfect in setting the stage for today’s post.
If you have an extra 3 minutes today, I would recommend the headline statements from the IPCC’s report. And, yes, I’d recommend reading this before reading a summary elsewhere :-).
It is a synthesis of 14,000 studies on climate change by over 750 scientists. If you have an extra 10 minutes, skim through the charts in the 42 page summary or see one of the many articles summarizing the work (like this one on ArsTechnica).
We’ve known about this for a while now. What is new is the level of confidence in the extent of the challenge we face and the path forward.
We’ll soon need to talk about possible solutions and things we can do on an individual level. But, the first step might just be to sit with this incredible piece of work for a bit, talk about it with people we work with and care about, and develop a shared understanding of the task that lies ahead.
PS: I titled the post “That IPCC report” because I’m sure it is how we’ll remember this report. It is seminal.
A Learning a Day 