New Delhi: The fact that the climate change is threatening our planet is now part of a report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The report was prepared by more than 2,000 scientists, who are now meeting at a review conference in Brussels.
The UN report said, Parts of Asia are threatened with massive flooding and avalanches from melting Himalayan glaciers. Europe also will see its Alpine glaciers disappear.
Australia's Great Barrier Reef will lose much of its coral to bleaching from even moderate increases in sea temperatures, the report said.
North America will experience more severe storms with human and economic loss, and cultural and social disruptions. It can expect more hurricanes, floods, droughts, heat waves and wildfires, it said.
The report said the Amazon rainforests and the deserts of Mexico were also in danger.
The scientists say climate change is entirely man made and its impact can be seen in plants, animals, water and ice.
They say even a rise of 1 degree Celsius in temperature can have devastating effects.
The report said up to 30 per cent of the Earth's species face an increased risk of vanishing if global temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius above the average in the 1980s and 1990s.
More than 120 nations attended the meeting. Each word was approved by consensus, and any change had to be approved by the scientists who drew up that section of the report.
But officials representing various governments are contesting the scientists findings. They say it is politically difficult for their governments to accept.
Some delegates even removed parts of a key chart highlighting devastating effects of climate change that kick in with every rise of 1.8 degrees, and in a tussle over the level of scientific reliability attached to key statements.
Seeking to tone down the certainty of some of the more dire projections, the United States, China and Saudi Arabia raised many of the objections.
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