Academic reports may sound alarm bells, but do not necessarily spur governments into action. In a post on Indigenus, Nature India editor Subhra Priyadarshini highlights two recent publications on the effects of climate change on vulnerable human populations (http://tinyurl.com/nqvq3t).

A report produced by the United Nations in collaboration with Columbia University in New York and the aid agency CARE International predicts large-scale migrations, and disruption to farming and water supplies, as the Himalayan alpine glaciers melt. Meanwhile, the London-based International Institute of Environment and Development, has published a book saying that a top priority, and no small task, is to “remedy deficits in infrastructure” in cities where “at least half of the population lacks piped water, sewers, drains, health care or emergency services,” writes Pryadarshini.

She notes that past academic reports and press coverage of some of the world's first climate-change refugees have done little to change their plight: “The migrants from these sinking islands [in the Bay of Bengal] have not yet been recognised as vulnerable.”