Traditional and 'new' environmentalists are united in the belief that climate change is a reality.
Much of the scientific basis behind this opinion is summarised in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report 2007.
The IPCC is a scientific body which reviews and assesses the most recent scientific, technical and socio-economic information produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of climate change. A joint statement was signed by various scientific bodies including the Royal Society in the UK stating that the IPCC is recognised as the world's most reliable source of information on climate change and its causes.
The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report can be found here: ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg3/en/ch3s3-5-2.html(opens in a new window)
The IPCC concludes that the global temperature rise should be limited to 1.6 C – 2.6 C:
'Significant benefits result from constraining temperature change to not more than 1.6 C – 2.6 C above pre-industrial levels. These benefits would include lowering (with different levels of confidence) the risk of: widespread deglaciation of the Greenland Ice Sheet; avoiding large-scale transformation of ecosystems and degradation of coral reefs; preventing terrestrial vegetation becoming a carbon source; constraining species extinction to between 10 – 40%; preserving many unique habitats (see IPCC, 2007b, Chapter 4, Table 4.1 and Figure 4.5) including much of the Arctic; reducing increases in flooding, drought, and fire; reducing water quality declines, and preventing global net declines in food production. Other benefits of this constraint, not shown in the Table 3.11, include reducing the risks of extreme weather events, and of at least partial deglaciation of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS)'.
– IPCC 4th Assessment Report 3.5.2 Linking emission scenarios to changes in global mean temperature, impacts and key vulnerabilities.
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