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Posted: 8:58 AM- This may be the report on climate change that finally shifts the debate from whether humans play a role in global warming to how does the world react the problem.
"The second of February in Paris will perhaps be one day remembered as when the question mark was removed (from) behind the debate about whether climate change had anything to do with human activity on this planet," said Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations Environmental Program, who spoke during a Webcast early Friday morning from France.
As part of the fourth report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a panel of international scientists made their boldest statement yet about human-driven carbon emissions being a major culprit in global warming.
Susan Solomon, an author of the report released Friday, said it pegs human involvement as 90 percent likely to contribute to warming, up from 66 percent in the previous report in 2001.
"The conclusion is it's very likely that most of the observed increase in globally average temperatures since the mid-20th century is due to the observed increase in greenhouse gas concentrations," she said.
Humans are believed to be adding more carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, due to sources such as cars and coal-fired power plants.
Solomon said not all warming across the seven continents is caused by people, but humans have made a discernible contribution to the problem.
Improvements in computer climate models, which are used to simulate future atmosphere based on different conditions, are among the reasons for the increased confidence on the human role in warming.
Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due mainly to the use of fossil fuels and changes in how people use the land. Agricultural practices appear responsible for increases in other greenhouse gasses, such as methane and nitrous oxide, according the the report.
Scientists are already seeing changes likely caused by global warming. Worldwide temperature observations indicate that 11 of the past 12 years, from 1995 to 2006, are the warmest on record.
The report also notes that increases in the melting of ice sheets and glaciers are projected to continue pushing sea levels up.
Steiner said for a child born today in southeastern Asia, an ocean-driven natural disaster will likely turn them at least once into environmental refugees sometime in their life.
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