The AGU Fall Meeting in San Fransisco is the largest
scientific meeting in the world. Each year in December, 20.000
- 30.000 scientists from all over the world gather in a gigantic conference centre which
then resembles a space station from a science fiction movie.
On the first day, there was a session on "Determining Matured Science: Utility, Cases, and Formats",
invited by Hans von Storch. The example of the regional BACC-style reports was
presented alongside with the global IPCC reports.
The presentations were followerd by a dedicated
podium discussion. Here, the term "mature science" was discussed for the case of
climate science; loosely defined as the state of science which has reached a
preliminary "it is now fairly safe to say" status, and on the basis of which
political and management decisions can be taken. The global IPCC and regional
climate reports were discussed as examples for the documentation of such
"mature" science.
The presentations and the podium discussion can be
viewed at the AGU On Demand website, search for Union session
U14A. https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm16/meetingapp.cgi/Session/12971
