Posted on 18 March 2023 by John Hartz

Story of the Week

Guest post: What 13,500 citations reveal about the IPCC’s climate science report

IPCC WG1 AR6 SPM Report Cover - Changing by Alisa Singer. Credit: Alisa Singer / IPCC.

In August 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published their long-anticipated report on the “physical science basis” for climate change. 

The report concluded that climate change is “unequivocally” caused by humans and already affecting every region on our planet. These findings were reported around the world, drawing international attention.

The mammoth 2,500-page document brings together an enormous volume of peer-reviewed literature to provide the most up-to-date summary of climate science yet published. Every statement in the report is backed up by authoritative sources.

Altogether, the report boasts a staggering 13,500 citations.

Our analysis explores which citations were included in the report and reveals a surprisingly broad and diverse range of topics.

However, it also shows that citations in the report are heavily dominated by the global north and commonly sit behind a paywall.

We found that 99.95% of the cited references were written in English and three-quarters of all literature cited in the report featured at least one author based in either the US or the UK.

Click here to access the entire article as originally posted on the Carbon Brief website.

Guest post: What 13,500 citations reveal about the IPCC’s climate science report by Dr Sarah Connors & Félix Chavelli, Carbon Brief, Mar 16, 2023

Links posted on Facebook

Sun, Mar 12, 2023

• Landowners Fear Injection of Fracking Waste Threatens Aquifers in West Texas by Dylan Baddour, Fossil Fuels, Inside Climate News, Mar 10, 2023
• A gas utility’s astroturf campaign threatens Oregon’s first electrification ordinance by Joseph Winters, Grist, Mar 7, 2023
• First Cop15, now the high seas treaty: there is hope for the planet’s future by Patrick Greenfield, Environment, The Guardian, Mar 9, 2023
• 15 million people could endure flooding as another atmospheric river takes aim at storm-battered California by Nouran Salahieh and Holly Yan, CNN, Mar 12, 2023
• Biden Administration Expected to Move Ahead on a Major Oil Project in Alaska by Lisa Friedman, Climate, New York Times, Mar 10, 2023

Mon, Mar 13, 2023

• Al Gore warns it would be ‘recklessly irresponsible’ to allow Alaska oil drilling plan by Oliver Milman, US News, The Guardian, Mar 10, 2023
• Apple’s climate change drama Extrapolations is earnest and plausible but also has talking whales by Andrew Webster, The Verge, Mar 10, 2023 
• Biden administration approves controversial Willow oil project in Alaska, which has galvanized online activism by Ella Nilsen, CNN, Mar 13, 2023
• G-7 Science Academies Call for Actions to Improve Climate Change Decision-Making, Protect Ocean Biodiversity, and Support Well-Being of Older People by Sara Frueh, National Acadamies (US), Mar 7, 2023

Tue, Mar 14, 2023

• Why East Antarctica is a 'sleeping giant' of sea level rise by Alec Luhn. Future, BBC, Mar 12, 2023
• New York City Begins Its Climate Change Reckoning on the Lower East Side, the Hard Way by Delaney Dryfoos, Politics & Policy, Inside Climate News, Mar 13, 2023
• At a glance - What do the 'Climategate' hacked CRU emails tell us? by John Mason, Skeptical Science, Feb 14, 2023
• Water disasters on both ends of the spectrum – dry and wet – are getting more intense as planet warms, study finds by Rachel Ramirez, CNN, Mar 13, 2023

Wed, Mar 15, 2023

• A record-breaking storm wreaks havoc in southern Africa by Ishaan Tharoor, World, Washington Post, Mar 14, 2023
• Scientists say climate change goosed New Zealand storm fury by Seth Borenstien, AP News, Mar 14, 2023
• The Big Picture by John Mason, Bärbel Winkler & Dana Nuccitelli, Skeptical Science, Mar 15, 2023
• Hundreds of thousands in deluged California are without power as state’s 11th atmospheric river sweeps through by Nouran Salahieh & Joe Sutton, CNN, Mar 15, 2023

Thu, Mar 16, 2023

• All the ways the most common bit of climate misinformation is wrong by Howard Lee, ArsTechnica, Mar 15, 2023
• There’s a Psychological ‘Vaccine’ against Misinformation by Daisy Yuhas, Mind & Brain, Scientific American, Mar 13, 2023 by 
• ‘Endless, brutal heat’: Argentina’s late-season heatwave has ‘no similarities in history’ by Laura Paddison, Americas, CNN, Mar 15, 2023
• Big, stinky blob of algae takes aim at Florida beaches. What's causing it? Is it climate change? by Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA Today, Mar 14, 2023

Fri, Mar 17, 2023

• What if climate change meant not doom — but abundance?, Rebecca Solnit, Opinion, Washington Post, Mar 15, 2023
• Guest post: What 13,500 citations reveal about the IPCC’s climate science report by Dr Sarah Connors & Félix Chavelli, Carbon Brief, Mar 16, 2023
• What it’s like to own an electric car by Daisy Simmons, Interview, Yale Climate Connections, Mar 15, 2023
• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2023 by Doug Bostrom & Marc Kodack , Skeptical Science, Mar. 16, 2023

Sat, Mar 18, 2023

• Arctic ice has seen an ‘irreversible’ thinning since 2007, study says by Scott Dance, Environemnt, Washington Post, Mar 15, 2023
• Regrowth of degraded tropical forests offsets ‘a quarter’ of deforestation emissions by Yanine Quiroz, Nature, Carbon Brief, Mar 15, 2023
• Review: Extrapolations Gets So Close to Doing Climate-Change Drama Right by Judy Berman, Entertainment, Time Magazine, Mar 17, 2023
• NASA Uses 30-Year Satellite Record to Track and Project Rising Seas, Staff, NASA's Global Climate Change, Mar 17, 2023