A September 27 announcement from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) marked the official release of its latest findings on global climate change. The IPCC’s findings are outlined in a lengthy (approximately 2,000 pages) report, “Climate Change 2013: the Physical Science Basis,” which is being made available to the public in “unedited form” online as of September 30. The final report will be released online and in book form in early 2014 after undergoing a last round of editing.
For those following recent climate debates, the findings of the IPCC report will come as no surprise, with the panel concluding “warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia.” The report is expected to provide a broad foundation for policymakers to reference when engaging the public on climate change issues going forward.