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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, comprising top international scientists, issued a dire report that confirms the world’s climate is warming, human activities have contributed significantly and the trend will “continue for centuries.
Present
• It is “unequivocal” that the world’s climate is warming -- average air and ocean temperatures and sea levels are rising and the melting of the planet’s snow and ice is widespread.
• It is “likely” -- “more likely than not” in some cases -- that manmade greenhouse gases have contributed to hotter days and nights, and more of them; more killer heat waves than before; heavier rainfall more often, major droughts in more regions, stronger and more frequent cyclones and “increased incidence” of extremely high sea levels.
Future
• If greenhouse gas emissions continue at or above today’s rate, they will “very likely” cause bigger changes in the world’s climate system in the 21st century than they did in the 20th century.
• The panel’s estimate for the range of rises in average global temperatures by 2100 is 1.8 to 4 degrees Celsius (3.2 to 7.1 degrees Fahrenheit).
• Warmer temperatures and rising sea levels will continue for centuries even if greenhouse gas concentrations are stabilized.
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