In the News & Views article “Climate change: The north–south connection” by Eric J. Steig (Nature 444, 152–153; 2006), there was an erroneous temperature inversion. The correct statement is that “there is a strong linear relationship between the magnitude of warming in Antarctica and the duration of the cold period that precedes each abrupt warming event in Greenland.” And in the following passage, “The authors' explanation is simple: the duration of the warm periods in Greenland reflects the duration of reduced MOC, and hence the amount of heat retained in the Southern Ocean”, “warm” should read “cold”.