Alarming IPCC Prognosis: 9°F Warming for U.S., Faster Sea Rise, More Extreme Weather, Permafrost Collapse — by Joe Romm

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) now says we are as certain that humans are dramatically changing the planet’s climate as we are that smoking causes cancer.

So perhaps the best way to think about the IPCC, which has issued a summary of its latest report reviewing the state of climate science, is as a super-cautious team of brilliant diagnosticians and specialists (who, like many doctors, aren’t the best communicators).

The diagnosis is that humans are suffering from a fever (and related symptoms) caused by our own actions — primarily emissions of carbon pollution.  Indeed, team IPCC is more certain than the last time we came in 6 years ago and ignored their advice.  They are 95% to 100% certain we are responsible for most of the added fever since 1950. They explain:

The best estimate of the human-induced contribution to warming is similar to the observed warming over this period.

To clarify the diagnosis, the best estimate is that humans are responsible for all of the warming we have suffered since 1950.

Alarming IPCC Prognosis:  9°F Warming for U.S., Faster Sea Rise, More Extreme Weather, Permafrost Collapse — by Joe Romm