Japan's cherry blossoms bloom earlier

Every spring, crowds flock to admire Japan's cherry blossom -- a dazzling pink and white bloom that has been revered in the country for more than a thousand years.

But the world-famous sakura plants are flowering much earlier than normal due to human-induced climate change, a new study has found.

Researchers from the Met Office in the United Kingdom and Osaka Metropolitan University in Japan say the climate crisis and urban warming have pushed forward the "peak bloom" flowering period by 11 days.