Global Warming and the Founding of the IPCC
Text excerpted from the book: PROTECTING THE PLANET-Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change (ISBN 978-1-63388-225-6)
by
Budd Titlow & Mariah Tinger
Beginning in the 1980’s, the global annual mean temperature curve started to rise and climate scientists began correlating this increase with a worldwide warming trend. The media and the general public took notice and began questioning the previous prognoses of a “New Ice Age” that had been bandied about for the past few decades.
Near the end of the decade, the global temperature curve began to increase so steeply that the Global Warming Theory began to gain ground fast. Various environmental NGO’s started to advocate global environmental protection to prevent further Global Warming. The media also gained an interest in this idea of a warming atmosphere and it soon became a hot news topic that was repeated around the world. Pictures of smoke stacks were juxtaposed next to pictures of melting ice caps and severe flooding events. Soon, a complete media circus had evolved that convinced many people that we were on the verge of a significant Climate Change event that would have many long-term negative impacts on the Earth.
As an offshoot of this concern, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) formed in 1988 with a primary goal of collecting and processing Climate Change information. Consisting of more than 2,500 scientific and technical experts, the IPCC was charged with predicting the future impacts of the Greenhouse Effect according to existing climate models and literature information.
Established under the auspices of the United Nations and set up at the request of member governments, the IPCC is open to all members of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). IPCC scientists are from widely divergent research fields including climatology, ecology, economics, medicine, and oceanography.
The IPCC routinely produces Assessment Reports that support the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which is the main international treaty on the subject. The UNFCCC’s precisely-stated objective is “stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic [i.e., human-induced] interference with the climate system”.
As the internationally accepted authority on Climate Change, the IPCC produces Assessment Reports that have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments. The IPCC bases each of its Assessment Reports on the published literature—including both peer-reviewed and non peer-reviewed sources. It does not conduct any of its own original research and also does not carry out any in-house monitoring of climate events or phenomena.
Thousands of scientists and other experts—working strictly on a voluntary basis, without pay—contribute to writing and reviewing the IPCC Assessment Reports. For expediency, each reports contains a “Summary for Policymakers” which is subjected to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments—typically representing more than 120 countries. The IPCC’s First Assessment Report—issued in 1990—concluded that the Earth’s temperature had risen during the past century and that human emissions of fossil fuels were likely adding to this rise.
At this juncture with the introduction of the IPCC, we should now discuss the Heartland Institute’s Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC). As is obvious from its similar name and acronym, the NIPCC was created in 2003 solely to cast aspersions and doubts on the findings and reports of the legitimate climate scientists whose work is covered by the IPCC.
To be as candid as possible here, the Heartland Institute that founded the NIPCC is a non-scientific, doubt-mongering entity supported by the fossil fuel industry and the Koch Brothers—their cohorts in the not so fine art of lying. Any documents produced by the Heartland Institute and/or the NIPCC have no credibility—scientific or otherwise—beyond casting doubt.
Stephen Schneider—Climate Change Guru
One of the primary scientists on the IPCC when it first formed in 1988 was a man who made the first steadfast predictions about Global Warming back in 1976. Dr. Stephen Schneider was a recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grantand shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with his colleagues on the IPCC and former vice president Al Gore for their international research on Global Warming. Dr. Schneider was an expert adviser to every presidential administration from Nixon to Obama. He was the Melvin and Joan Lane professor for interdisciplinary environmental studies, a professor in the Department of Biology, and a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. He was also a National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist from 1973-1996, where he co-founded the Climate Project.
Dr. Stephen Schneider was an expert adviser to every presidential administration from Nixon to Obama.
Founder and editor of Climatic Change Magazine, Professor Schneider authored or co-authored over 500 books, scientific papers, proceedings, and legislative testimonies, and edited hundreds of other books chapters, reviews, and editorials. He especially emphasized climate-driven Global Warming and its wide-ranging effects, such as a recorded rise in ocean temperatures and the increasing potency and frequency of hurricanes. He also conducted research on the near-irreversible damage of GHG on the ozone layer and theorized how a nuclear war might affect the climate.
“No one, and I mean no one, had a broader and deeper understanding of the climate issue than Stephen,” said Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University. “More than anyone else, he helped shape the way the public and experts thought about this problem—from the basic physics of the problem, to the impact of human beings on nature’s ecosystems, to developing policy.”
Unfortunately, this Climate Change visionary died far too early— at the age of 65—from an apparent heart attack while on a flight landing in London in 2010. The Climate Change community could certainly use his bold and unflinchingly forthright leadership right now.
NASA’s James Hansen—Yes, Climate Change Is For Real! And The Deniers Respond
On the more fortunate side of the ledger, another esteemed climatologist stepped up in 1988 and made the world aware of the pending perils of Global Warming associated with Climate Change. Dr. James Hansen, National Atmospheric and Space Administration (NASA) scientist reported to Congress that Global Warming was simultaneously melting the polar ice caps and causing extreme droughts throughout the world. As a climate scientist who made a lasting impression about the potential dangerous effects that Climate Change posed for the world, Dr. Hansen is featured as one of our Climate Change Heroes.
In 1988, Dr. James Hansen—National Atmospheric and Space Administration (NASA)—scientist made the world aware of the pending perils of Global Warming associated with Climate Change.
Perfectly dove-tailing with Dr. Hansen’s testimony before Congress, 1988 featured both the highest global temperature in 130 years and the worst US droughts since the Dust Bowl Era of the 1930’s. Taken collectively, these findings did manage to give the ongoing Climate Change crisis some cache with the media and the general public. Unfortunately, the information also alerted the denier network that immediate action needed to be taken to avert the truth.
Accordingly in 1989, the fossil fuel companies and other US industries formed the Global Climate Coalition (GCC) with a mission of convincing politicians and the general public that Climate Change science was too uncertain to justify action. The GCC dissolved in 2002 due to membership loss when an IPCC Assessment Report provided massive technical information showing that Global Warming was indeed occurring.
However today—working primarily through the Heartland Institute and the pseudo-scientific NIPCC—the fossil fuel industry is still lobbying Congress that IPCC and other scientific reports showing that severe Global Warming caused by ongoing Climate Change are inconclusive and that the situation requires further study.
Author’s bio:For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees. Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America — provides the answers we all seek and need.Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
CONSERVING NATURE WITH WORDS & PHOTOS 