Global warming is already attributed for many of the natural catastrophes that wreak havoc and claim thousands of lives worldwide, but the effects of the warming climate may even get worse in the coming years.
A leaked draft of United Nations report reveals that food shortage is also imminent within the next decade because of climate change, as the warming climate has already reduced grain production by several percentage points and the situation could even get worse if emission of greenhouse gases, which the report described to be at its highest in history and likely unprecedented in the last 800,000 years, remains unchecked.
The report, which was drafted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of scientists and experts from around the world appointed by the U.N to monitor climate science and periodically issue reports about the latest scientific findings, also attributed the changing climate to human influence and warned of the implications of a warming planet.
"Human influence has been detected in warming of the atmosphere and the ocean, in changes in the global water cycle, in reduction in snow and ice, and in global mean-sea-level rise; and it is extremely likely to have been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century," the report read.
Although the leaked 127-page report is not yet final and may even have substantial changes before it is officially released, its content is not unheard of as the document is meant to synthesize three earlier reports on climate change albeit with blunter language to underscore the risks that may be intensified with failure to curb the emissions of heat trapping gases particularly carbon dioxide which is primarily released because of man-made activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.
One of these earlier reports showed that scientists are 95 percent certain that human activities contribute to climate change while another concluded that everyone in the planet will be impacted by the changing climate. A third report revealed of drastic measures that need to be taken globally to lower emissions before it is too late.
IPCC spokesman Jonathan Lynn declined to comment on the content of the leaked report obtained by Bloomberg saying that the draft is still a work in progress and that it will still have changes making it premature to discuss the contents at this time. The final report is set to be published by early November.
