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Environmental effects: It's our doing"Because the rates of emissions are growing, it looks like we could burn through the other half in the next 25 years" under one of the more dire scenarios outlined in the report. Other scenarios show that the threshold will be reached later this century. The finding constitutes a warning to governments to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, which is generated by the burning of fossil fuels, industrial activity and deforestation. Calling climate change "the greatest challenge of our time," panel co-chair Thomas Stocker said humankind's fate in the next 100 years "depends crucially on how much carbon dioxide will be emitted in the future". In the report, the panel said it is 95% certain that human activity is the dominant cause of the global warming observed since the 1950s. That is up from 90% six years ago. "Human influence has been detected in warming of the atmosphere and the ocean, in changes in the global water cycle, in reductions in snow and ice, in global mean sea level rise, and in changes in some climate extremes," the report said. The report is the panel's fifth major assessment since 1990. It reaffirms many of the conclusions of past reports, but with greater confidence. "The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased," the panel wrote in a 36-page summary of its findings.

Approximately 26 million Britons are presently having money problems because the economic slump has induced a "live for the moment" mentality, based on a major report on the wellbeing of the country's finances. Over fifty percent of UK adults stated that they were struggling with their finances, the government-sponsored body, Money Advice Service (MAS), bared. This is a sudden increase from 35 percent of people who were undergoing a hard time paying their bills compared to the previous time a similar study was conducted in 2006. Hourly salary has plummeted by 6 percent in real value since the previous research was carried out, making it more difficult for people to eke out a living. A "live for the moment" culture and lack of financial smarts were also discovered to be possible reasons. Twenty percent of those polled stated that they would prefer to have £200 at present than £400 after four months, with twenty-five percent of people replying they choose to live for the present rather than plan for the future. The report also showed that a disturbing number of Britons are deficient in financial awareness. About 12 percent of those asked believed the Bank of England's base rate, which has been at a remarkable 0.5 percent low for over four years, was over 10 percent. Over one third of the people asked did not comprehend the great effect that inflation has on their savings and 16 percent could not tell the right balance on a bank statement. Nevertheless, more encouraging result from the survey revealed that the number of people checking their bank account statements had grown since 2006 and almost 84 percent of people said they constantly monitored their finances. 40 percent of those questioned said they stay clear of doubtful dealings and 85 percent said they were laying aside some money in savings. Caroline Rookes, chief executive of the MAS, said: "In