Earth science

Refining the future - p125

Anna Armstrong

Published online: 22 October 2009; doi:10.1038/climate.2009.111

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Planetary boundaries: Tangible targets are critical - pp114 - 115

Myles Allen

Setting a limit on long-term atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations merely distracts from the much more immediate challenge of limiting warming to 2 °C.

Published online: 23 September 2009; doi:10.1038/climate.2009.95

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Planetary boundaries: Keep off the grass - pp113 - 114

Steve Bass

Humanity must learn to live within a stable Holocene environment, but the boundary limit for land use depends on more than the amount of surface covered.

Published online: 23 September 2009; doi:10.1038/climate.2009.94

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Planetary boundaries: Consider all consequences - pp117 - 118

Peter Brewer

Ocean acidification has impacts other than simple changes in pH, and these may need boundaries too.

Published online: 23 September 2009; doi:10.1038/climate.2009.98

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A safe space - p109

Olive Heffernan

Published online: 02 October 2009; doi:10.1038/climate.2009.103

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Planetary boundaries: The devil is in the detail - pp116 - 117

David Molden

A global limit on water consumption is necessary, but the suggested planetary boundary of 4,000 cubic kilometres per year is too generous.

Published online: 23 September 2009; doi:10.1038/climate.2009.97

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Planetary boundaries: Identifying abrupt change - pp115 - 116

Mario J. Molina

Five per cent is a reasonable limit for acceptable ozone depletion, but it doesn't represent a tipping point.

Published online: 23 September 2009; doi:10.1038/climate.2009.96

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Planetary boundaries: Rethinking biodiversity - pp118 - 119

Cristián Samper

A boundary that expresses the probability of families of species disappearing over time would better reflect our potential impacts on the future of life on Earth.

Published online: 23 September 2009; doi:10.1038/climate.2009.99

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Planetary boundaries: Thresholds risk prolonged degradation - pp112 - 113

William H. Schlesinger

For nitrogen deposition as for other pollution, waiting until we approach the limits of environmental degradation merely allows us to continue our bad habits until it's too late to change them.

Published online: 23 September 2009; doi:10.1038/climate.2009.93

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Planetary boundaries - p112

Published online: 23 September 2009; doi:10.1038/climate.2009.92

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Fallow fields - p77

Anna Armstrong

Published online: 18 June 2009; doi:10.1038/climate.2009.59

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Clear-cut carbon - p54

Anna Armstrong

Published online: 16 April 2009; doi:10.1038/climate.2009.35

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A sleeping giant? - pp46 - 49

Amanda Mascarelli

As the planet warms, vast stores of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — could be released from frozen deposits on land and under the ocean. Amanda Leigh Mascarelli reports on the race to understand a ticking time bomb.

Published online: 05 March 2009; doi:10.1038/climate.2009.24

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Leaf-level warming - p29

Anna Armstrong

Published online: 05 February 2009; doi:10.1038/climate.2009.12

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What we've learned in 2008 - pp4 - 6

Amanda Leigh

Amanda Leigh Mascarelli looks at how far our understanding of climate change has come in the past twelve months.

Published online: 18 December 2008; doi:10.1038/climate.2008.142

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Looking back from the future - p12

Chris Turney

If future explorers came across evidence of human civilization 100 million years from now, what impression would they have of our existence?

Published online: 04 December 2008; doi:10.1038/climate.2008.133

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