Jan+13th


 * What is the IPCC? **
 * What position does the IPCC take, with respect to issues related to sustainability? **
 * Does the IPCC have any critics? If so, what is the contrarian view? **

The IPCC is the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change. It is an international body of scientists that was formed by the UN to assess climate change. The IPCC working group II assesses the effects climate change has on socio-economic and natural systems, the negative and positive consequences of climate change, and options for adapting to it (read resilience) it also considers the effects/relationships of sustainable development. The assessed information is categorized by their individual systems - water, eco, food & forest, coastal, industry and human health and by their continental areas worldwide. Scientist from all over the world volunteer their time and expertise towards the study and work of the IPCC. It is open to all member countires of the UN and WMO.

One of the IPCC's critics, Mike Hulme, reviews the research on climate change, and points a finger at the IPCC for exaggerating the number of sources used to come to consensus about climate change data. A climate scientist and IPCC insider, Hulme says that the IPCC claimed having over '2,500 of the world's leading scientists', when in fact they only had a few dozen. Hulme scrutinizes the IPCC's exaggeration in his review article of the IPCC, and their representation of uncertainty in general. [|Climate Change: what do we know about the IPCC?]