The IPCC report represents a collaboration by over 2,500 reviewers and 1,200 authors from more than 130 countries. The report itself represents six years of work and is perhaps the most comprehensive discussion of global climate change ever created. The conclusion of the report represents a consensus amongst the climatology community. Every model, every scenario, and all the data supports a conclusion that the earth is getting warmer, and that human civilization is largely responsible for it. To quote the summary of the report: “The understanding of warming and cooling influences on climate has improved since the Third Assessment Report, leading to very high confidence that the globally averaged net effectiveness of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming.” In this case, “very high confidence” refers to confidence levels of about 90 percent.

Since there appears to be no real remaining doubt that we are influencing the climate, the logical question of course is what we can do. If we act soon, the opportunity exists to greatly mitigate the effects of global climate change. Although we as individuals can help solve this problem by conserving energy, the bulk of the solution must come from the government. We must pursue development and implementation of alternative energy sources which do not rely on hydrocarbon combustion. We must provide strong incentives to corporations to reduce their consumption of energy and to produce more efficient products. But most of all, we must accept and understand the implications of global climate change. This is no myth; the fact that climate change is occurring and that we are responsible is an issue of no controversy among the climatology community. The challenges presented by global climate changes are only beginning to become apparent, and the sooner we accept the problem, the greater our likelihood of being able to reverse its effects. Mitigating the effects of global climate change will be the great challenge for our generation, and we as a society must rise to the challenge.