If there were any doubt before, there should be none now. "Solving" the global climate change problem may be humankind's mission impossible. That's the gist of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations group charged with monitoring global warming.
Unless we make dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide, methane and others), warns the IPCC, we face a future of rapidly rising temperatures that will destroy virtually all the world's coral reefs, intensify droughts and raise sea levels. We need to take action immediately, if not sooner.
The IPCC says that emissions need to be cut 45 percent from present levels by 2030 and virtually eliminated by 2050. This would keep the projected increase in global temperatures since the early 1800s to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We would escape the worst consequences of global warming.