Is Earth near its 'tipping points' from global warming?

Earth is spinning toward many points of no return from the damage of global warming, after which disease, desolation and famine are inevitable, say scientists involved in an international report due Friday on the effects of climate change.

Opinions vary about how long it will take to reach those "tipping points" and whether attempts to cut planet-warming gases churned out by power plants, vehicles and other human industry can slow, halt or reverse the harmful effects in coming decades. Some suggest it might be cheaper for society to adapt to the changing climate than to roll back the pace of warming.

But in the report, the second of three this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, thousands of climate scientists and representatives of more than 100 nations, including the USA, present in the most stark terms the "key global risks" — serious environmental consequences from the changing climate — that threaten humanity.

"It's time (a report) puts people on the planet into the picture" of global warming, says economist Gary Yohe of Wesleyan University, a lead author of the report.

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