The latest in a series of dire warnings about the dangers of climate change came this March, when a leading group of United Nations experts has indicated that the world is likely to cross a dangerous temperature threshold within the next 10 years. Unless countries take immediate, drastic action to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, global warming will reach catastrophic levels by the early 2030s, according to a widely circulated report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The likely result: ever-worsening weather disasters and related events—famines, the extinction of some plant and wildlife species, and the spread of infectious diseases—that could kill millions of people by the end of the century. There is still time to avert disaster, experts said, but the window for action is closing fast. The reality is that few countries are on track to meet their existing climate change targets, let alone are willing to step up the pace to save the planet. (Meghan Gunn, Kerri Anne Renzulli and Ned Potter, Newsweek 90)