Attempts to stop catastrophic climate change are proving futile, says UN report

A draft of a new UN report seen by The New York Times warns that our planet is at risk of "severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts" if the world's governments don't quickly alter their course and do more to limit the emissions of greenhouse gases. The report, drafted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says that we are already nearing a temperature at which the ice sheet covering Greenland is expected to begin melting — an unstoppable process that could raise global sea levels by 23 feet and bring other extremes of climate including heat waves and torrential rain.