Tim Flannery, Australian climate-change expert, recently told the Australian media that the upcoming report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will state that greenhouse gases have already reached a level that will pose great risk for the planet. Previously, the IPCC had estimated that these levels would not be reached for about another decade.

The changes can be traced directly to human-related sources as industrial expansion proceeds at a high rate of growth, particularly in China and other Asian nations.