The fourth report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which labelled human activities "the prime cause of global warming," has been named the topmost revelation of the year.
Scientists behind the report warned that unhindered emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide might lead to catastrophic and unstoppable changes, including droughts, sea level rise, more severe weather, melting of glaciers and polar ice and floods.
The report also suggested that even if man-made emissions were curtailed, the global warming’s effects would continue for centuries.
The listing appears in the online edition of Live Science .
Second on the list was a report revealing summer ice melt had reached a record extent in the Arctic. It suggested that though the melt was proving to be a boon to marine vessels by opening up the fabled Northwest Passage, it could spell trouble for the polar environment, and the globe.
A news story about the prodding of Earth’s climates to varying extremes due to increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere was at third position, while an article highlighting good and bad news on alternative energy came in fourth.
Wrapping up the top five was a report that revealed that emission rates of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases were accelerating, despite scientists making dire predictions of their effects.
The sixth position went to the finding that when humans and coral reefs are neighbours, reefs just cannot compete, and become susceptible to diseases, particularly herpes viruses. The report suggested that such stresses are killing coral reefs off faster than previously thought, causing them to disappear twice as fast as rainforests on land.
It was followed by a report suggesting that endangered animals were coming increasingly under threat by deforestation and other forms of habitat destruction, pollution and poaching.
Eighth on the list was a study suggesting that Earth’s warming temperature could shift wind and rain patterns so that dry areas become drier and wet areas become wetter, leaving places like the American Southwest permanently parched.
While the revelation that satellite lasers detected a series of previously unknown sub-glacial lakes under the Antarctic ice came in ninth, the finding that global oil production could peak as soon as 2008, and would likely do so before 2018 wrapped up the top 10.
Top 10 Science Revelations:
1. Climate Change
2. Arctic Meltdown
3. Extreme Weather
4. Good and Bad News on Alternative Energy
5. Carbon Dioxide
6. Coral Cold Sores
7. Endangered Animals
8. Drought
9. Antarctic Surprises
10. Impending Oil Peak