IT IS a case of the dog that didn’t bark. The dog in this instance was the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
For several years, climate scientists have grown increasingly anxious about “positive feedbacks” that could accelerate climate change, such as methane bubbling up as permafrost melts. That concern found focus at an international conference organised by the British government two years ago, and many people expected it to emerge strongly in the latest IPCC report, whose summary for policy-makers was published in Paris last month.
It didn’t happen. The IPCC summary was notably guarded. We put that down to scientific caution and the desire to…
