IPCC reports are certainly among our most important documents in the climate change library. Some no doubt still may have missed or just skimmed over last month’s “red alert for humanity,” released during summer vacation and quickly pushed from top headlines by relentless disasters both natural and political.
Here is a chance to get caught up. While the pieces below naturally make some of the same general points, each focuses on different aspects of what is, after all, a massive report.
For quick takeaways, try these:
There is very minimal overlap among these short lists, so it’s worth reading them all.
For deeper dives, read these excellent, thorough articles by the Washington Post’s Brady Dennis and Sarah Kaplan and by the staff at Carbon Brief.
All the major climate news venues and their stellar climate journalists wrote very good overview stories. See:
To hear directly from top lead authors/scientists, read Robert Kopp in The Conversation (“What the warnings mean”) and Ben Santer in The Hill (“How IPCC went from ‘not proven’ that we cause climate change in 1990 to ‘we are guilty’ in 2021”).
Finally, to begin considering what must come next, read Climate Wire’s Chelsea Harvey, “Climate scientists have a message for the world: Don’t give up.”
This series is curated and written by retired Colorado State University English professor and close climate change watcher SueEllen Campbell of Colorado. To flag works you think warrant attention, send an e-mail to her any time. Let us hear from you.
