text: The actual first-order science has pretty much gotten lost in this second-order posturing by both sides. This is bad for science, and bad for policy. Given that I think the IPCC on balance may not be helping climate science, greater reliance on national assessments or assessments undertaken by other international groups would be a good thing. Note: the U.S. has produced a plethora of climate change assessments in the past two years, which are probably more important for U.S. policy than the IPCC assessments.