UN to finalize report on how global warming hits home hard
Author: Seth Borenstein and Frank Jordans
Scientists and governments met Monday to finalize a major UN report on how global warming disrupts people's lives, their natural environment and the Earth itself. The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a collection of hundreds of the world's top scientists, issues three huge reports on climate change every five to seven years. Environmentalists argue that the extreme weather already seen in parts of the world in recent years shows how urgent it is for governments to address the rising cost of climate change. "The forthcoming IPCC report will confirm what we already know about the crushing toll of heatwaves, drought, floods, storms, wildfires and ocean acidification for people and critical ecosystems," said Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists.