The United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization created the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988. The panel is a committee made up of hundreds of scientists. Last week, an IPCC working group released a report about climatic conditions around the world.
Scientists are surer than ever before that the Earth is warming and that human activity is to blame. That is the message of the new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As we hear from Christopher Cruise, the report's findings will help inform policy makers and the public as they consider action to fight climate change.
One-hundred-ten governments approved this scientific agreement:
"It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of observed warming since the mid-20^th century."
The head of the World Meteorological Organization, Michael Jarraud, spoke at a press conference about the new report.
"It should serve as yet another wake-up call that our activities today will have a profound impact on society, not only for us, but for many generations to come."
Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have been losing mass and glaciers continue to shrink, the report says. It calls the decrease of Artic sea ice, "unprecedented," meaning nothing like this has been noted before. The report also examines the mean rate of sea level rise. It says that since the middle of the 19^th century, the rate is higher than at any time in the past 2000 years.
The working group also examined the connection between extreme weather events and climate. Brenda Ekwurzel is a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit group. She has worked with the scientists who prepared the IPCC report.
"The most we can say is that extreme events dealing with coastal flooding and extreme heat, (we have) very, very high confidence with these events being highly linked to climate change."
She says the report blames human activity for half of the increased warming over the past fifty or so years. One such activity is the burning of fossil fuels in factories, buildings and cars. This produces heat-trapping gasses.
Past IPCC reports have led the way to international agreements like the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. It ended in 2012. The United Nation's top climate official, Christiana Figueres, says the new report will help move new climate talks forward.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is sometimes criticized as appearing to be too conservative in its predictions. But, Ms. Figueres says this report is right on the mark.
"Everything that we thought we knew about climate change has been underestimated, that we will have much faster and much more intense effects from the growing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. So, it's a very sobering message that calls for a more invigorated and more accelerated policy response to address that."
Government leaders and climate experts will get a chance to do that at the climate negotiations next month. The talks will take place in the Polish capital, Warsaw.505
What does the underlined word “sobering”mean in the last paragraph?

A．satisfactory

B．serious

C．disappointing

D．unbelievable

According to the passage, the Earth is warming due to_______.

A．human activity

B．the burning of fossil fuels

C．heat-trapping gasses

D．the burning of fossil fuels in cars

Which of the following statements is true according to the passage？

A．Christopher Cruise says that our activities today will have a profound impact on society.

B．Ms. Figueres says that climate change calls for a more invigorated and more accelerated policy response to address that.

C．Michael Jarraud says that the report blames human activity for half of the increased warming over the past fifty or so years.

D．Brenda Ekwurzel says that It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of observed warming since the mid-20thcentury.