Silence
Discussions with folk who are sceptical regarding the extent of climate change generally end with comments that, ‘The jury is still out,’ ‘Scientists are still not united in their claims,’ or, more recently, ‘Global temperatures are not warming as predicted.’ The media add to the feeling that it’s still fine for people to make up their own minds by wheeling out a climate sceptic every time there is a feature relating to climate change.
The fact that we have a gathering of thousands of top scientists, drawn from all around the world, who give of their time voluntarily to bring their findings together, should therefore be a reason for great celebration and relief. These findings, extensively checked and peer reviewed and then modified to remove any potentially alarmist statements by cautious government bodies, make up the IPCC reports (from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – a scientific body under the auspices of the United Nations). Surely their reports will provide exactly what everyone needs – clear, unequivocal evidence on which to base our decision-making and futures.
To date they have produced four authoritative reports – the fifth is now being released. These are the headline statements for 2013, released in September:
It is, despite the calm language used, clear and unequivocal – planet earth is in big trouble. Surely now at last everyone must accept that the time for action is NOW! But unbelievably a well-managed alliance of climate sceptics managed to pull out a small area of unexpected results – ‘a reduction in surface warming trend over the period 1998–2012’ – despite the fact that this may have been caused through volcanic eruptions, fluctuations in solar radiation and natural variability in the planetary cycle together with the fact that gathering reliable data from the polar regions is problematic. In the weeks before the release date, this group managed to gain good coverage in various papers, doing a very effective job of persuading many readers that the IPCC report was discredited. Nothing could have been further from the truth but the skillful media campaign had a significant impact. The release of the report in September – which should have been a real turning point – somehow seemed to disappear from public view, after 24 hours of media coverage.
Do take time to read the summary of the IPCC findings and do what you can to share them with others. They are too important and too crucial to overlook in this way. As George Monbiot comments: ‘More significant is the behaviour of powerful people who claim to accept the evidence … Press any minister on this matter in private and, in one way or another, they will concede the point. Yet no government will act on it.’ We must do all we can to bring pressure to bear.
Isabel Carter
