Intergovernmental Fourth Assessment Report on Climate Change (2007)
In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its Fourth Assessment Report on Climate Change, which for many people confirmed the reality of climate change. The Fourth Assessment Report on Climate Change consisted of the reports of three working groups and a synthesis report of their findings. Reproduced here is the “Summary for Policymakers,” from the synthesis report.
The issue of global warming and climate change caused by fossil fuel burning and carbon emissions since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution has become highly polarized. On the one hand are scientists and members of the public who insist that “anthropogenic” (that is, caused by human activity) climate change is an incontrovertible fact. They agree with former U.S. vice president Al Gore, author of a documentary film called An Inconvenient Truth, that the science is “settled” and that all doubts that the earth is warming have been dispelled. These people support government action to...
