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This year is make or break for climate and a sustainable future. The opportunity to make genuine progress on these grand societal challenges must not be squandered.
The third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction ended with an agreement lacking ambition. The conference showed that better communication between the scientific community and decision-makers is needed to develop informed frameworks.
How can we measure disaster loss reduction in the absence of reliable loss data on the economic and human impacts? Existing loss accounting systems vastly underestimate the true burden of disasters, both nationally and globally.
Reforming fossil fuel subsidies could free up enough funds to finance universal access to water, sanitation, and electricity in many countries, as well as helping to cut global greenhouse-gas emissions.
Global flood risk models were developed to identify risk hotspots in a world with increasing flood occurrence. Here we assess the ability and limitations of the current models and suggest what is needed moving forward.
Climate change continues to be a controversial issue among political elites in the US. New research shows how ideological views become entrenched through 'echo chambers'.
Persistent drought in the Sahel in the 1970s and 1980s was caused by subtle changes in global sea surface temperatures. Now model results show that the direct effect of increasing greenhouse-gas concentrations led to the subsequent recovery.
Diatoms are important primary producers in the ocean, however their response to rising CO2 is uncertain. Now research shows how diatoms regulate their metabolism in response to changing CO2.
Submarine permafrost thaw in the Arctic has been suggested as a trigger for the release of large quantities of methane to the water column, and subsequently the atmosphere — with important implications for global warming. Now research shows that microbial oxidation of methane at the thaw front can effectively prevent its release.
Local weather influences perception of climate change. Although weather is not representative of climate, this study shows that the percentage of the population experiencing higher temperatures has increased, in line with climate model projections.
Understanding past climate should help reduce uncertainties in projections of future climate. This Review of palaeosimulation evaluations suggests that existing models capture broad patterns of climate change, but that further improvement is needed.
Automated text analysis shows that Norwegians emphasize themes around weather and ice, the future, consumption and attribution when responding to survey questions about climate change, with greater concern for societal aspects than UK or US citizens.
Power providers do not account for climate change in their development plans. But 46% of power stations in the western United States are vulnerable to long-term changes in streamflow, air temperature, water temperature, humidity and air density.
Analysis of an IPCC press conference shows that certain terms hold different meanings for scientific and public audiences, highlighting the difficulty of balancing scientific credibility with public dialogue.
Higher atmospheric greenhouse gases are shown to have driven the recovery of Sahelian rainfall since the 1980s. This study discounts the role of sea surface temperature changes that had previously been jointly credited as drivers of the recovery.
Carbon fixation by marine diatoms, which dominate ocean primary productivity, is energetically expensive. Now genetic analysis shows that elevated CO2 causes downregulation of these mechanisms, resulting in metabolic rearrangement and energy savings.
Common ragweed is an invasive plant in Europe, and many people are allergic to its pollen. Modelling results indicate that airborne pollen concentrations are likely to increase in Europe over coming decades, at least in part owing to climate change.
Surface area does not decrease monotonically with elevation for two-thirds of mountain ranges. Consequently many mountain species might not experience reduced habitat area as they move upslope under climate change.
Widespread severe coral bleaching and degradation is projected to occur by 2050 due to global warming. But the risk of global bleaching could be reduced through climate engineering using stratospheric aerosol-based solar radiation management.
Empirical analysis of climate change debates in the US Congress shows that policymakers are most likely to seek out experts confirming their existing views. That information then gets disseminated among like-minded individuals in ‘echo chambers’.