Scientists, others gather in Thailand to finalize third IPCC report
In its third report of the year, due out Friday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will recommend climate solutions. (The first report confirmed the existence and science of our collective mess, and the second outlined its likely effects.) So what will save us? A draft released this weekend suggests nuclear power, genetically modified crops, and carbon burial as leading options. Uh, awesome? We feel so much better? “Simply replacing one set of technologies with another set of technologies won’t work, especially when there are such big downsides with some of them,” says Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth. “Structural change to the economy, behavior change, and culture change — those have to be elements in a world of decarbonization.” At least 400 experts from some 120 countries are meeting in Bangkok this week to go over the fine print before the final draft is released — and, says a U.N. Environment Program spokesperson, the whole thing could be “completely rewritten.”
