Earlier this week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their latest report emphasizing the seriousness of climate change and the urgency to act now.

To help us break down what the report says—and what it means for activists and policymakers—today we spend the hour with Jonathan A. Patz, director of the Global Health Institute at UW–Madison, and IPCC lead author Paul N. Edwards from the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford.

The biggest takeaway? “The science is unequivocal,” says Jonathan Patz. “Climate change is not about the future—it’s happening now. It’s an emergency, but it’s solvable.”

Jonathan Patz is director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is a professor and the John P. Holton Chair of Health and the Environment with appointments in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Population Health Sciences. For fifteen years, Patz served as a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Paul N. Edwards is director of the Program in Science, Technology & Society (STS) and a William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. He also co-directs the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative and is a lead author on the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report.

Cover image: The tongue of the Malaspina Glacier, the largest glacier in Alaska. Photo by USGS on Unsplash (cropped).