- #1
BCO
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The IPCC and the term "most"
An online "sparring partner" brought up an interesting point during one of our regular (some would say never-ending) climate debates the other day. He asked me for clarity on what the IPCC means by "most" in their Fourth Assessment Report when they say:
"Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations."
The reports are quite clear in defining quite specific definitions for "very likely," "likely" etc. but there seems to be no attempt at all to quantify the term "most". Does "most" mean 51% or does it mean closer to 90%? Or is it somewhere in between? Maybe most is 71.2% - who knows? Does it matter? Obviously there's a lot of "wiggle room" in this definition, unless it's clarified somewhere in another IPCC document and I have just not looked in the right places.
Any assistance on this would be great. Thanks,
BCO
An online "sparring partner" brought up an interesting point during one of our regular (some would say never-ending) climate debates the other day. He asked me for clarity on what the IPCC means by "most" in their Fourth Assessment Report when they say:
"Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations."
The reports are quite clear in defining quite specific definitions for "very likely," "likely" etc. but there seems to be no attempt at all to quantify the term "most". Does "most" mean 51% or does it mean closer to 90%? Or is it somewhere in between? Maybe most is 71.2% - who knows? Does it matter? Obviously there's a lot of "wiggle room" in this definition, unless it's clarified somewhere in another IPCC document and I have just not looked in the right places.
Any assistance on this would be great. Thanks,
BCO