Extreme climates will cause untold damage in the not-too-distant future.

For years now, climate change has been an ongoing problem lurking in the background of world events, and according to a new report released by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released today, we could begin seeing overt and drastic effects of shifting climates in the very near future.

According to the report, if human-induced climate change isn’t limited in at least a minor capacity soon, natural disasters caused by climate change could become at least four times worse than they are now in the next 80 years. This includes extreme hot, extreme cold, floods, droughts, powerful storms, and brush fires, as well as up to 127 other potential disasters.

“The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health,” the report reads, adding that continued delay in decisive anti-climate-change action “will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”

“Every bit of warming matters. The longer you wait… the more you will pay later,” report co-chair Hans-Otto Poertner of Germany told the Associated Press.

If climate change remains on its current trend, by the year 2050, billions of people living in coastal cities and communities could see their homes completely subsumed by the ocean, assuming they aren’t destroyed by worsening storms first. Many coastal areas and islands could even become completely uninhabitable. Inland wouldn’t be much better, as intense heat during the summer months would make it borderline impossible to stay outside for long periods, which would also decimate crop production.

The writers of the report are trying to keep the matter from sounding like a portent of doom, however. “It’s really bad and there’s a good chance that it will get worse,” says Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe. “But if we do everything we can, that will make a difference. Our actions will make the difference… That’s what hope is.”