BERLIN — Scientists and governments met Monday to finalize a major U.N. report on how global warming disrupts people’s lives, their natural environment and the Earth itself. Don’t expect a flowery valentine to the planet: instead an activist group predicted “a nightmare painted in the dry language of science.”
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a collection of hundreds of the world’s top scientists, issues three huge reports on climate change every five to seven years. The latest update, which won’t be finished until the end of February, will explain how climate change already affects humans and the planet, what to expect in the future, and the risks and benefits of adapting to a warmer world.
“We’re concerned that the physical climate around us is changing,” said panel co-chair Debra Roberts, a South African environmental scientist. “But for most people in their day-to-day lives… they want to know: so what? What does it mean for their lives, their aspirations, their jobs, their families, the places where they live.”
The report features seven regional chapters “about how physical changes in the climate change people’s lives,” she said. And she said it will have a strong emphasis on cities.
Even without seeing the final report, activists call it a warning sign for the planet.
“The IPCC’s horrifying evidence of escalating climate impacts is set to show a nightmare painted in the dry language of science,” Teresa Anderson, who heads climate justice issues at ActionAid International, said in a statement.
Scientists won’t yet say specifically what’s in the report because its critical summary is still subject to intense negotiation between the authors and governments over next two weeks, with consensus needed for the final version.
Drafts that have circulated publicly will be changed, sometimes dramatically, before it is publicly released on Feb. 28.
Last August, the first of the three reports, which prompted the U.N. to declare “code red, ” outlined the physical science of climate change while a third report coming out in March will be more about what can be done to curb and adapt to global warming.
Without getting into specifics, report co-chair Hans-Otto Poertner said the science is clear that there are limits — including temperature limits — to what key ecosystems, species and humans can withstand. And in some places, warming is near those limits and in a few cases, such as much of the world’s coral reefs, have even passed them.