Dear Reader,
The news is not good at this time. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released its latest summary report for policymakers at the beginning of this month.
Summary for Policymakers. The IPCC Report serves as a set of guidelines from the science community. It is called the Summary for Policymakers. The policymakers will be in Katowice, Poland in December for the 24th meeting, known as COP24. Meetings since Paris (COP21) were held in Marrakech- (COP22), and Bonn- (COP23). These acronyms serve to keep track of the discussions and mark the different locations. The people at the COP24 will not be scientists, they will be political leaders and diplomats sent to negotiate agreements on behalf of their respective governments.
Over 6,000 References. The Report looked closely at the differences between a warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to a warming of 2 degrees Celsius. The report includes more than 6,000 scientific references cited and reflects the dedicated contribution of thousands of expert and government reviewers worldwide. Ninety-one authors and review editors from 40 countries prepared the IPCC report.
Dig Deeper. I encourage all to read the journalists collected here with their efforts to render the technical jargon of the IPCC accessible to the rest of us. I have included several brief notes from climate specialists in the scientific community who have some encouragement to share. There are a number of good "translations" now of the official UN report which is necessarily dense and technical. I encourage all to dig deeper if you are able and inspect even briefly the documents of the UN panels where you can. Remember, the IPCC Summary for Policymakers is only 33 pages but related documents comprise 6 chapters with hundreds of pages of supporting material.
I have included a word as usual from Thomas Berry and also a piece from Pope Francis in Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home.
Let me hear from you if you have ideas for improving the Carbon Rangers. Email: kcawley1@mac.com
Edmund Rice International is attempting to spread the word on the recent report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Students and others might find it easier to approach the IPCC Report via several journalism efforts which have been posted on the Edmund Rice International web page below. Simply paste the link in your browser and the posts appear on the first page of the site.
There are now about a dozen articles posted reporting on the IPCC document.
http://edmundriceinternational.org/jpic/
December 10th, 2018 is the 70th anniversary of the U.N.’s Declaration on Human Rights.
Please click below to learn more about the UDHR: 70th Anniversary