The third report of Working Group One of the IPCC said that pollution caused by humans has contributed "substantially" to global warming. The report updates that issued in 1995.
The Group says that the ability of models to predict climate change has improved, and that warming of the planet is accelerating faster than originally predicted. Global temperature could increase on average by 1.4 – 5.80C between 1990 and 2100.
The IPCC's latest projections also show that it is "very likely" that nearly all land areas will warm more rapidly than the global average, particularly those at northern high latitudes.
Most notable of these is the warming in the northern regions of North America and northern and central Asia. The IPCC believes that warming in these regions will exceed the global average by 40%.
The IPCC also believes that global average temperature is now about 0.150C higher than that estimated in 1995 for the period up to 1994. The record shows a "great deal" of variability, with most warming occurring during 1910-1945 and 1976-2000.
Globally, the IPCC says it is now "very likely" that the 1990s was the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year since records began.
Global mean sea level is also projected to rise by up to 0.88 m between 1990 and 2100, primarily to thermal expansion and loss of mass from glaciers and ice caps.
"The scientific consensus... about human-induced climate change should sound alarm bells in every national capital and in every local community" said Dr Klaus Toepfer, head of the United Nations Environment Programme.
Source
Building Sustainable Design
Postscript
The IPCC Third Assessment Report Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis can be down-loaded from http://www.ipcc.ch/
