Global warming already changing the environment, report says

Manmade global warming is already causing environmental changes throughout the world and is likely to result in widespread human suffering in the future -- including droughts, floods and an increase in disease -- according to a report released today by the leading authority on climate change.

The United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the most definitive and grim assessment of global warming's impact to date and highlights a key point: Poor countries will suffer the greatest as the world continues to warm because they have the least ability to adapt to rising sea levels and changing precipitation patterns.

"If a government doesn't react to this (report), it could be considered negligence," said Susanne Moser, a geographer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado and a contributing author to the document. "It's a fairly bleak picture."

North Americans can expect more heat waves in cities, flooding, and fiercer storms, as well as wildfires and pests in forests. The Southwest will get drier and those places such as the western United States that get drinking water from melting mountain snow will suffer shortages. One piece of good news is that crop yields could increase by as much as 20 percent in some places, largely because of longer growing seasons. More specific regional assessments will be released during the next two weeks.

The report's release was delayed for several hours in part because scientists clashed with U.S., Saudi Arabian and Chinese government officials over wording about the degree of certainty scientists have that global warming is already influencing physical and biological systems. All governments must sign off on the document and its release was preceded by five days of intense negotiations with officials from more than 100 countries.

The wording was ultimately changed to reflect less certainty, a move scientists opposed. The final report says it is "likely" that human-caused global warming has had a discernible influence, while the original language had said it was "very likely," according the The Associated Press.

Still, the report's over-arching message to government officials around the world was that if emissions of heat-trapping gases, chiefly carbon dioxide, are not dramatically reduced, virtually every part of the world will experience a changing environment that plants, animals and humans many not be able to adapt to. The report warns that 20 percent to 30 percent of plant and animal species could face increased risk of extinction.