
TOKYO -- Climate scientists unequivocally blamed human activity for the warming of the planet in a United Nations report released Monday, painting a bleak future of extreme weather, including worsening heat waves, floods and droughts.
The report by 234 scientists on the International Panel on Climate Change said humans have a brief window of opportunity to prevent the most catastrophic outcome. The world must make a coordinated effort now to limit the planet's average temperature rise to 1.5 C from pre-industrial levels, the report says. Warming of 1.5 C is considered the critical threshold above which the impact of warming will grow significantly.