Princeton University professor Michael Oppenheimer is available to comment on the Sept. 27 release of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to examine the connection between greenhouse gases and human-made climate change and its consequences, such as extreme heat, intense precipitation and sea-level rise. Titled "Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis," it is the first part of the Fifth Assessment Report from the IPCC, an organization under the auspices of the United Nations that periodically evaluates the effects of climate change.
Oppenheimer, a long-time participant in the IPCC and an expert on sea-level rise, said that the upcoming report will provide policymakers and the public with an assessment of climate research from the past several years, as well as long- and near-term climate projections. The report cites more than 9,200 papers accepted for publication since the release of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report in 2007.
Also known as the Working Group I report, the document is one of four parts of the Fifth Assessment Report. Oppenheimer, who was not directly involved in the Working Group I report, is a coordinating lead author of the second working group report scheduled for approval in March 2014, which will examine the risks and consequences of climate change for humans and nature. Climate-change mitigation will be addressed in the third working group report to be approved in April 2014. The synthesis report — of which Oppenheimer is a member of the core writing team — will offer an overview of the IPCC's work and will be released around October 2014.
Oppenheimer is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs at Princeton and directs the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy (STEP) in Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He can be contacted through Princeton science writer Morgan Kelly at 609-258-5729, or mgnkelly@princeton.edu.
