Rising seas, melting ice caps and other effects of a warming climate may be irreversible for centuries and are unequivocally driven by greenhouse-gas emissions from human activity, a scientific panel working under the auspices of the United Nations said Monday in a new report.
World leaders—especially those from the West and island nations that are especially vulnerable to climate change—deemed the report a call to action ahead of international climate negotiations scheduled for November. Many called for cutbacks in fossil-fuel consumption, which the report identifies as a leading driver of the rise in levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
“The impacts of the climate crisis, from extreme heat to wildfires to intense rainfall and flooding, will only continue to intensify unless we choose another course for ourselves and generations to come,” said U.S. climate envoy John Kerry. “What the world requires now is real…