WASHINGTON (AP) – A U.N. report says limiting global warming to just under a single degree could mean the difference between life and death for many people and ecosystems.
But the scientists behind the report have little hope the world will rise to the challenge.
The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued the report on Sunday at its meeting in South Korea.
The nations of the world have set a goal of limiting warming of the planet to 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, or a single degree Celsius. But the scientists say there would be a big difference if that goal were cut in half.
If that happened, they say, there would be fewer heat waves, downpours and extinctions, less sea-level rise and more coral reefs and ice sheets.
