Cities from New York to Shanghai could see regular flooding, as sea levels rise faster than previously thought.
Glaciers and ice sheets from the Himalayas to Antarctica are rapidly melting.
And the fisheries that feed millions of people are shrinking.
These are just some of the impacts that emissions of greenhouse gases have already triggered across the planet's oceans and frozen regions, according to a new landmark report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
More than 100 scientists from 36 countries worked on the report -- titled the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. It is the last of three special reports from the IPCC following last October's urgent report that showed the world may only have until 2030 to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees, and August's report on climate impacts to the planet's lands.
"This report is unique because for the first time ever, the IPCC has produced an in-depth report examining the furthest corners of the Earth -- from the highest mountains in remote polar regions to the deepest oceans," said Ko Barrett, vice chair of the IPCC. "We've found that even and especially in these places, human-caused climate change is evident."

It is just the latest scientific evidence showing that human-induced warming is rapidly taking the planet down an uncharted path.
The scientists say there may be some impacts to the global climate -- like some amount of sea level rise -- that can no longer be stopped.
But even though there is uncertainty in the report about what exactly the future holds, the authors are unambiguous on this: Despite the damage that has been done, humanity still has a choice.
Taking swift action to end the global economy's dependence on fossil fuels can ward off some of the worst projected impacts, they say.
Or, we continue down the path we are on, into a world far less hospitable than the one we live in.
An alarming global melt
This new report paints a full and alarming picture of the rapid thawing happening in frozen regions all across the globe -- and how the changes will dramatically alter human civilization in the coming decades.
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The oceans also naturally absorb carbon dioxide from the air and have likely stored 20 to 30 percent of what humans have released into the atmosphere since 1980, the report says. But absorbing massive amounts of carbon has made the ocean more acidic and inhospitable to corals that millions of other species depend on for survival.


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