New Climate Change Report on Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adaptation

In 10 seconds? The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just released a new report on 'Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. The main message is that the world’s situation is grim, but there is plenty of action we can and should take now.

But they said the same last year? In August, the IPCC called human-caused climate change “Code red for humanity”. That was for the release of the Working Group I assessment on ‘The Physical Science Basis’. (The IPCC has 3 working groups and the 1^st one assesses the physical science behind climate change). This new release is for Working Group II (covering climate impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability) while the assessment from Working Group III, (Mitigation of Climate Change), is scheduled for publication later in March. Overall, the three reports repeat what we have known for a long time: We are changing the planet's climate rapidly and substantively with major, negative impacts, yet there is plenty we can do to avert the problems if we choose to act immediately.