U.N. issues landmark report on global warming

VALENCIA, Spain - The Earth is hurtling toward a warmer age at a quickening pace, a Nobel-winning U.N. scientific panel said in a landmark report Saturday, warning of inevitable human suffering and the threat of species extinction.

The report also offered blueprints to avert the worst catastrophes. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said climate change imperils "the most precious treasures of our planet."

The potential impact of global warming is "so severe and so sweeping that only urgent, global action will do," Ban told the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change after it issued its fourth and final report this year.

Tags: global warming