Posthuman Blues

UN Sees 'Far More Robust' Global Warming Evidence

In its last assessment in 2001, the IPCC said there was "new and stronger evidence" that gases linked to human activities, mainly from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars, were the main cause of global warming.

Its next report, the first chapter of which will be launched in Paris on Feb. 2, will group research by about 2,000 scientists on the drivers of climate change and its impacts on weather, disease, ecology and water supply.

Marked strengthening in the IPCC conclusions might pressure the United States -- which pulled out of the emissions-cutting UN Kyoto Protocol in 2001 -- to toughen its policies.