The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a
“special report ” (that’s what they call topical reports they
publish in between their better known comprehensive assessments)
today that is worth a close look for anyone who wants to start
getting ready for a future with weirder and often harsher
weather. About a year ago I published an opinion editorial
taking the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to
task for neglecting risk-based information to help decision
makers cope with inevitable uncertainties about the future
impacts of climate change: Since uncertainty is endemic to the
future, when the second IPCC assessment concluded in 1995 that
‘The balance of evidence suggests a discernable human influence
on the global climate’, the IPCC should have reconvened around
the risk implications of this probable human influence. Instead,
it redoubled its effort to reduce physical science uncertainties
[which will not be resolved before action is required]. Happily,
that changed today wit