The United Nations released a report Friday reiterating that humans have made a major contribution in the current condition of global warming and may worsen it over time.
The 36-page summary report for policymakers hopes to trigger policy changes soon. Based on the report, humans are likely to contribute to a 2-degree Celsius rise in the surface temperature because of the activities emitting higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Corinne Le Quere, a geophysicist at the University of East Anglia in the U.K. and one of the study authors in the report, wrote that human activities for the past 261 years have contributed to 545 gigatons of carbon dioxide. She predicted that between 2040 and 2050, the temperature will reach its 2-degree Celsius threshold adding 1,000 more on the current amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Roughly 67 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted was found to be from burning fossil fuels while the rest were linked to deforestation and land use. Burning fossil fuels have increased by 90 percent in the past 10 years.
The report summary presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change drafted by 800 scientists who concluded that humans are behind 95 percent of global warming. This is five percent higher than their 2007 report. They supported their conclusion with reports showing warming in the air and oceans, decreasing ice and snow levels, and rising sea levels.
"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over the millennia," the report says.
Earth has been warming rapidly for the past 30 years which proves that Earth is really undergoing a major change.
The panel urged the governments to act immediately before Earth reaches its worst scenario—a 4.8 degree Celsius rise in temperature.
