The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a dire report on Monday, warning that in order to avoid catastrophic climate change by as early as 2040, governments around the world must take "unprecedented" action to limit global warming to "well below" 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
The panel is under the auspices of the United Nations, and the report was written by 91 scientists from 40 countries who examined more than 6,000 scientific studies. They found that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, by 2040, the atmosphere will heat up by as much as 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above preindustrial levels, causing a mass die off of coral reefs, intense droughts, coastal flooding, and food shortages.
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