What is the IPCC and why should I care?

I will start out by saying this warning for all of my posts: I am not a climate change scientist. I do not claim to be a climate change scientist and I probably never will be a climate change scientist. With that out of the way, I would like to lend you my credentials: I am a current graduate student in Baltimore, Maryland studying for a PhD in Molecular Genetics. I am here as an interpreter to everything science. I will try to explain what facts are supported by scientist and what facts are not currently supported by scientists. I endeavor to present the facts and let you judge, but I have to admit a bias toward believing in climate change.

With that I would like to introduce you to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC is sort of the end all for all scientific data on climate change. It was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Every few years the IPCC publishes a report detailing the basic and specific conclusions concerning climate change. It DOES NOT conduct any research. It gathers research data from around the globe on the subject of climate change.

Here are the answers to a few questions you may be asking at this point:

Who is part of the IPCC? Everyone! Litterally, the IPCC is made up of governments, scientist, and people

Why do we need the IPCC? Isn't it just a bureaucratic conglomerate of like-minded idealists?
The goal of the IPCC is to provide objective data for governments and policy-makers on the subject of climate change. In their own words:

"The role of the IPCC is to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. Review by experts and governments is an essential part of the IPCC process."

I would make a point that the IPCC is overseen by all the world's governments and merely works with them to make them aware of the data that is present on climate change. They are like-mined idealists, this cannot be denied, but they only present the facts and what they believe the facts conclude.

As stated before, the IPCC publishes a report every few years gathering the data on climate change. It is my endevor, through the next few posts, to break down the 2007 report into it's subsequent parts and try to explain the science and implication of that research. I must warn you that this is a 52 page document and it does get hefty at points. If successful though, I hope that this information gets to a new audience.