There are hours to go before the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issues its much-anticipated report, "Climate Change 2007," but already the internets are abuzz with early punditry.
Joseph Romm at Grist speculates that because the report is written by committee, the findings may have "a conservative edge."
The DeSmog Blog anticipates the PR circus that will doubtless follow on the heels of the report.
And BlueClimate joins ScienceBloggers Josh Rosenau and Chris Mooney in speculating on early reports that the IPCC document will credit global warming with creating stronger hurricanes.
Our forecast for tomorrow? A veritable deluge of reactions and counter-reactions. Stay tuned.
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It's a shame that this report is coming out on a Friday, and one can't help but wonder if there was any governmental pressure (from any nation) for this to be the case.
Fridays are notorious for being "news dump" days- administrations release potentially damning info right before the weekend. Outlets then have a hard time maintaining (or even gaining in the first place) public interest into the work week.
Sigh.
OK, it's out. From the reports I've read so far, the authors are struggling with how to convey the urgency of the situation -- that global warming is a near certainty -- without causing policy makers to just give up.
In my view, we can finally see the brick wall in front of our speeding Hummer. There's no longer any way to pretend it's not there, or steer left or right around it. Now that we're sure to hit it, do we keep our foot on the accelerator, or put on the brakes?
Or throw up our hands and let God take care of it?