Climate Change Driving More Extreme Weather: UN

The U.N. climate panel predicts even more dramatic effects on weather as the world's overall climate warms further this century.

A new study by 220 scientists around the world reveals that climate change brought on by human activity has already amplified heat waves as well as downpours similar to those responsible for recent catastrophic flooding.

The report, published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), was released days before the start of U.N. climate talks in Durban, South Africa.

“We can actually attribute the increase of hot days in the past few years to an increase in greenhouse gases,” said IPCC co-chair Thomas Stocker.

He told reporters that it is “virtually certain that increases in the frequency and magnitude of warm daily temperature extremes, and decreases in cold extremes, will occur in the 21st century.”

However, the researchers who prepared the report couldn’t entirely agree on how much climate change will affect other events such as tropical cyclones.

But there was evidence the storms have been shifting “poleward,” meaning they could become more likely to strike areas like New York and Western Europe.

Photos: IPCC