Oppenheimer: Lower global temperature increases could have major impact

A new study by scientists updating earlier findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that even a lower level of increase in average global temperatures due to greenhouse gas emissions could cause significant problems in five key areas of concern.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is titled "Assessing Dangerous Climate Change Through an Update of the IPCC 'Reasons for Concern.'"

"The more we learn about the problem, the more severe the risk becomes and the nearer it looms," said Michael Oppenheimer, one of the report's authors and a professor of geosciences and international affairs in Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. "Cutting emissions of the greenhouse gases promptly is the surest way to reduce the risk, and that's how governments should be responding."

Click here to read more about the study.