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UN Panel Issues Stark Warning On Global Warming

A new report issued on Sunday by a United Nations panel said that climate change and pollution due to human action is “clear” with “unprecedented” effects.

The UN issued its strongest warning yet on global warming, saying that there is no doubt it is real and avoiding the worst effects will require bringing greenhouse gas emissions to almost zero by the end of the century. While many countries are increasing their efforts to control greenhouse gases, the global situation is worsening as developing countries begin burning large amounts of fossil fuels, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said.

According to the UN, the risks of climate change are so great they have the potential to stall or reverse generations of progress against hunger and poverty if greenhouse emissions continue, the New York Times reported.

[quote text_size=”small” author=”– Ban Ki-moon” author_title=”U.N. Secretary-General”]

Science has spoken. There is no ambiguity in their message. Leaders must act. Time is not on our side.

[/quote]

This was the fourth and final volume of the IPCC’s climate assessment. While it did not offer surprises, it combined findings of three earlier reports released over the last year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

There was little hope in the report, although it did find that the tools necessary to set the world on a path to low emissions exist; countries simply need to break addiction to gas, coal and oil that are powering the global energy system while polluting the atmosphere.

The IPCC was created in 1988 to assess global warming and its effects. This latest report is a review of 30,000 climate change studies that have established with 95% certainty that virtually all warming seen since the 1950s is caused by humanity.

Very few scientists challenge the conclusion that climate change is caused by human activity. Global Climate Change finds that 97% of climate scientists agree that global warming trends over the last one hundred years are likely caused by humans, the Boston Herald reported.

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