The IPCC: Our True Superstars

Note: The above only highlights the 91 authors and review editors of the IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C. It does not include the additional 133 contributing authors. There simply wasn’t room.

What global cooperation really looks like

• 6000+ peer-reviewed scientific references
• 42,001 expert comments
• 224 scientists
• 40 countries

The IPCC is an intergovernmental body, with 195 member governments. When it commissions a report, thousands of scientists, economists and policy experts from the world over contribute to its work on a voluntary basis as authors, contributors and reviewers. While they do not perform original research, they do collate and analyse research already available in the public domain.

The commissioned scientists are an extraordinary set of individuals. From every corner of the globe, these volunteers donate hundreds of hours to assessing the degree and extent of our changing climate. They do this by examining published and peer-reviewed literature to provide a comprehensive picture of what the science actually says. They do this for the benefit of us humans. They also do it for the benefit of our future prosperity.

And what they said last week should be taken supremely seriously by every policymaker on the face of the planet.

Of course, the report’s brutal diagnosis will be taken seriously by those already urgently trying to recruit the indifferent to this cause. But for the vast majority — including the Donald, including Australia’s politicians, including the willingly blind — it will merely register as just another “According to a new report by the…”

But this report by the IPCC is different — so it’s important we talk about it in those terms. Let’s comprehensively counter the “spiral of silence” that plagues climate change (or better yet: ‘climate breakdown’) and get word out about how important this 1.5°C report really is. Let’s also get word out about the work of the IPCC. Because, let’s face it, it’s thankless being a scientist.

So thank you to the IPCC and all the earth scientists out there that they referenced.

They are our true superstars.