'Scientists Left Uneasy by Changes to Climate Report
By William Scally, CQ Staff
By William Scally, CQ Staff
Deletions made during an all-night editing session on a draft report on global warming released in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday have left some scientists uneasy.
The fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that rising Earth temperatures raises the specter of widespread floods, water shortages and species extinction.
But some key findings in the report had to be changed in order to obtain the required consensus agreement from the more than 120 nations taking part.
“We believe that this was unprecedented in the history of the IPCC since 1988, and was an ugly and damaging development. To our knowledge there have been no similar acts in the history of the IPCC,” the environmental group Greenpeace said.
Changes in a 23-page Summary for Policymakers on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability omitted a scenario showing the potential impact of policy on climate change and toned down the level of confidence that regional climate changes are affecting natural systems.
The authors of the report had wanted to assert that “based on observational evidence from all continents and most oceans, there is very high confidence that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases,” according to Joel Smith, a drafting author and former deputy director of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Very high confidence means nine out of 10 chances. China and Saudi Arabia wanted the language downgraded to “high confidence” (eight out of 10 chances).
The three authors proposed putting “very high confidence” into a footnote, Smith said in an interview from Brussels.
But ultimately the United States led a group to work out a solution — removing the reference to confidence level and omitting a footnote.
“It was almost splitting hairs,” Smith said.'
The fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that rising Earth temperatures raises the specter of widespread floods, water shortages and species extinction.
But some key findings in the report had to be changed in order to obtain the required consensus agreement from the more than 120 nations taking part.
“We believe that this was unprecedented in the history of the IPCC since 1988, and was an ugly and damaging development. To our knowledge there have been no similar acts in the history of the IPCC,” the environmental group Greenpeace said.
Changes in a 23-page Summary for Policymakers on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability omitted a scenario showing the potential impact of policy on climate change and toned down the level of confidence that regional climate changes are affecting natural systems.
The authors of the report had wanted to assert that “based on observational evidence from all continents and most oceans, there is very high confidence that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases,” according to Joel Smith, a drafting author and former deputy director of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Very high confidence means nine out of 10 chances. China and Saudi Arabia wanted the language downgraded to “high confidence” (eight out of 10 chances).
The three authors proposed putting “very high confidence” into a footnote, Smith said in an interview from Brussels.
But ultimately the United States led a group to work out a solution — removing the reference to confidence level and omitting a footnote.
“It was almost splitting hairs,” Smith said.'
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