UN to finalize science report on how warming hits home hard

A special United Nations panel is putting the finishing touches on a major science report that's supposed to tell people the “so what?”

BERLIN -- Scientists and governments will meet Monday to finish a major United Nations report on how global warming disrupts people's lives, their natural environment and the Earth itself. Don’t expect a flowery valentine to the planet: instead an activist group predicted “a nightmare painted in the dry language of science.”

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a collection of hundreds of the world’s top scientists, issues three huge reports on climate change every five to seven years. The latest update, which won't be finished until the end of February, will explain how climate change already affects humans and the planet, what to expect in the future, and the risks and benefits of adapting to a warmer world.

“We’re concerned that the physical climate around us is changing,” said panel co-chair Debra Roberts, a South African environmental scientist. “But for most people in their day-to-day lives... they want to know: so what? What does it mean for their lives, their aspirations, their jobs, their families, the places where they live.”

The report features seven regional chapters “about how physical changes in the climate change people’s lives,” she said. And she said it will have a strong emphasis on cities.