Since 1750, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased by 31 per cent -- from 280 parts per million (ppm) to about 367 ppm today. Even if atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are eventually stabilized at quite modest concentrations, sea levels will continue to rise "for more than 1,000 years," said Jason Lowe of Britain's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research.

"Dealing with (global warming) will not be easy. Ignoring it will be worse," the UN panel said in a statement.

Why so much ado about global warming? "We may not always see or feel it directly, but climate change affects us all," says Worldwatch's Susan Finkelpearl. "For one person it might mean paying more for food because flooding or drought has damaged crops. For another it might mean a higher risk of contracting a disease like malaria, which spreads more easily in warm, wet climates. Someone else might face losing her home or even life in a catastrophic weather disaster made worse by global warming."

Many climate scientists say that floods, storms and droughts will becomeIn the Philippines, the sea level rise would cause underground saltwater intrusion in many cities near coastal areas. Most of Manila's wells, for instance, might very well turn too saline to use more frequent and that climate change is the most severe long-term threat to the planet's life-support systems.

Geird Leipold, international executive director of Greenpeace, pointed out: "Climate change is the biggest environmental issue because it threatens to be disastrous. It will not only directly affect our climate. It will severely affect human beings and the ecosystem. We will have millions of people suffering from it." To which UN weapons inspector Hanx Blix adds, "I'm more worried about global warming than I am of any major military conflict."

In the Philippines, the sea level rise would cause underground saltwater intrusion in many cities near coastal areas. Most of Manila's wells, for instance, might very well turn too saline to use at all if the sea level rises by a meter or so. In Cebu, aquifers are increasingly contaminated with salt.

As a result, government officials would be force "to spend billions of dollars that the Philippines doesn't have on desalination plants," observes American environmental journalist Don Hinrichsen. "The money would have to be borrowed from abroad, saddling the country with more foreign debt."

Another principal effect of global warming is an increased sea temperature which, in turn could increase the number of tropical cyclones and storms. "Weather patterns could become unpredictable, as would extreme weather events, hurricanes could become much stronger and more frequent," wrote Lulu Bucay in a brochure produced by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

The weather bureau said the country normally experiences tropical cyclones of up to 20 a year. But in recent years, stronger typhoons have become more frequent. Last year's series of typhoons - Unding, Violeta, Winnie, and Yoyong - were just a rehearsal of the worst thing to come. The change in global temperature has also been blamed for the severe droughts which the Philippines has been experiencing lately. Major drought events have been identified with the El Niño or warm episodes in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific. This year, the country again suffers from the wrath of El Niño.

Experts claim global warming could drive thousands of species to extinction. "If climate zones shift, existing national parks or protected areas would no longer preserve the habitat for plants, fish and wildlife for which they were established," Bucay wrote. "Few forests, for instance, could keep up with the predicted temperature changes causing hard consequences on the species that depend on them."