Climate scientists are struggling to find the right words for very bad news

In Incheon, South Korea, this week, representatives of over 130 countries and about 50 scientists have packed into a large conference center going over every line of an all-important report: What chance does the planet have of keeping climate change to a moderate, controllable level?

Delegates and experts attend the opening ceremony of the 48th
 session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in
Incheon, South Korea, on Oct. 1, 2018.

When they can’t agree, they form “contact groups” outside the hall, trying to strike an agreement and move the process along. They are trying to reach consensus on what it would mean — and what it would take — to limit the warming of the planet to just 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, when 1 degree Celsius has already occurred and greenhouse gas emissions remain at record highs.

“It’s the biggest peer-review exercise there is,” said Jonathan Lynn, head of communications for the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “It involves hundreds or even thousands of people looking at it.”

Read the story from The Washington Post by Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis -  “Climate scientists are struggling to find the right words for very bad news.”