Harsh, dangerous reality of climate change

be unperturbed by the colourful character with big white eyes in the next seat.

It was not immediately clear why Spider-Man had dropped in.

STOCKHOLM: A draft UN report on a warming planet allows the world to “face the reality” of climate change, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 18, said yesterday.

While the draft from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed that the “situation is very dire” and there is a “need to act right now”, Thunberg said it also made her hopeful since it “could wake people up”.

The report, seen exclusively by AFP, projects how species extinction, more widespread disease, unliveable heat, ecosystem collapse, cities menaced by rising seas and other devastating climate impacts are accelerating. It says the impacts are bound to become painfully obvious before a child born today turns 30.

Many thresholds are closer than thought and dire consequences stemming from decades of unbridled carbon pollution are unavoidable in the short term. “We cannot face this crisis unless we tell it like it is, unless we are adult enough to tell the truth and to face reality,” Thunberg said.