Given the length of the latest IPCC report on the physical science of climate change – well more than 1,000 pages, and considering some 14,000 scientific studies – it’s encouraging that good media coverage has gone beyond big picture stories. Here is a sample of some pieces focused on particularly interesting aspects of this important report.
Vox’s Umair Irfan has a characteristically useful explanation of the report’s five possible future scenarios, each resulting from a different set of human actions.
Canary Media’s Jeff St. John lays out the reasons methane, newly prominent in this IPCC update, is so important for near-term warming.
Some scientists think the report underplays some major climate-change risks. “How lucky do you feel?” asks Peter Hannan in the Sidney Morning Herald.
Add to that: “The UN climate report pins hopes on carbon removal technologies that barely exist,” according to James Temple at Technology Review.
This New York Times article (Lisa Friedman, Hiroko Tabuchi, Winston Choi-Schagrin) focuses on work that needs doing, fights that need fighting, especially to protect vulnerable nations.
The new report may turn out to be very useful in lawsuits against climate polluters, writes Chloé Farand at Climate Change News.
Information from paleoclimate science is woven throughout this report’s findings and confidence, according to Katarina Zimmer’s interview of Georgia Tech paleoclimatologist Kim Cobb in Scientific American.
Finally, here’s an editorial that’s worth your time, from Hayes Brown at MSNBC: “The new IPCC climate change report is harrowing – but hopeful.”
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.