Earth is warming. The vast majority of climate scientists have spent many years warning the public of that reality and the dangers it poses for life on our fragile planet.

Now, there’s evidence that Canada will experience the effects of climate change more severely than many other regions of the globe.

"Canada's climate has warmed and will warm further in the future, driven by human influence,” reads a new report commissioned by Environment and Climate Change Canada. “Both past and future warming in Canada is, on average, about double the magnitude of global warming.”

The document—titled “Canada's Changing Climate” (CCC)—was leaked to CBC News and first reported by the network this morning (April 1).

CBC paraphrases the report as describing severe climate change as now “effectively irreversible”.

"Scenarios with limited warming will only occur if Canada and the rest of the world reduce carbon emissions to near zero early in the second half of the century,” the CCC report reads.

It notes a number of influences are responsible for the planet's warming, but states, "the human factor is dominant".

The climate-change report was leaked to CBC News the same week that the federal government imposed a new carbon tax on Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick. (The country’s other provinces and territories implemented taxes on air pollution willingly, while these four held out and subsequently saw Ottawa impose the tax over their objections.)

A Reuters report quotes Ontario premier Doug Ford vowing to continue to oppose the measure.

“We’re going to keep fighting this carbon tax with every single tool at our disposal,” Ford said quoted there.