And so, for another six years at least, it is over. Thousands of authors referring to vast numbers of papers have, in sometimes- contested consultation with the governments that lend their name to the process, provided the world with their best assessment to date of humanity’s prospects and options in the matter of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is far from a perfect institution, but it is a necessary and a heartening one. To see the governments of the world almost unanimously acknowledge that they share a problem, and set up a process for identifying its scope that is rooted in the impartial norms of science,.
