A View On The IPCC

This is for the discussion on the IPCC, and on weather or not it is doing any good. The sorce for the discushen is here.

Why this government role? The reason is because governments need a sound summary of knowledge which, once commissioned and adopted, becomes accepted by them.

This is why the IPCC assessments are so significant; they represent the description of knowledge that governments "buy into".

It is a summary of what we know and - just as importantly - what we do not know

We should not expect them to be full of exciting new material; rather, they are consolidations of what we know.

This is why they err, if anything, on the side of conservatism and have been criticised for not exploring the outer edges of knowledge.

I think the best words there are what the governments buy into. Each country represented will have its own agenda. No matter how much you try to avoid letting the agenda make your decision there will be influence. The IPCC may be as good as it gets, but may not be any where near as good as it can be.

The IPCC is part of the UN. This is the same body that people point to as being inept when it came to Iraq. Why is it that we put all of our faith in the UN when it comes to something that isn't their job (climate science) but we have no faith in them when it comes to something that is their job (politics and security).