Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • COMMENT

Global warming will happen faster than we think

Three trends will combine to hasten it, warn Yangyang Xu, Veerabhadran Ramanathan and David G. Victor.
  1. Yangyang Xu

    1. Yangyang Xu is an assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Veerabhadran Ramanathan

    1. Veerabhadran Ramanathan is professor of atmospheric and climate sciences at the University of California, San Diego, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  3. David G. Victor

    1. David G. Victor is adjunct professor of climate at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, USA; professor of international relations at the University of California, San Diego; and co-chair of the Cross-Brookings Initiative on Energy and Climate at the Brookings Institution, Washington DC, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

A home engulfed in fire in California

Devastating wildfires ravaged California last month. Credit: Gene Blevins/Reuters

Prepare for the “new abnormal”. That was what California Governor Jerry Brown told reporters last month, commenting on the deadly wildfires that have plagued the state this year. He’s right. California’s latest crisis builds on years of record-breaking droughts and heatwaves. The rest of the world, too, has had more than its fair share of extreme weather in 2018. The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change announced last week that 157 million more people were exposed to heatwave events in 2017, compared with 2000.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 564, 30-32 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07586-5

References

  1. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Global Warming of 1.5 °C (IPCC, 2018).

  2. Le Quéré, C. et al. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 10, 405–448 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Smith, D. M. et al. Geophys. Res. Lett. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079362 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Karplus, V. J., Zhang, S. & Almond, D. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, 7004–7009 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Burnett, R. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, 9592–9597 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Salzmann, M. Sci. Adv. 2, e1501572 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Meehl, G. A., Hu, A. & Teng, H. Nature Commun. 7, 11718 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Chen, X. & Tung, K.-K. Nature 559, 387–391 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Henley, B. J. & King, A. D. Geophys. Res. Lett. 44, 4256–4262 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Xu, Y. & Ramanathan, V. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 10315–10323 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Victor, D. G. Oxford Rev. Econ. Pol. 24, 322–336 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • Director for the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center

    The University of Wisconsin-Madison seeks a Director for the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center (WNPRC).

    Madison, Wisconsin

    University of Wisconsin-Madison Office of Vice Chancellor for Research

  • Postdoctoral Fellow

    New Orleans, Louisiana

    Tulane University School of Medicine

  • Assistant Professor

    The Department of Human Genetics at the University of Michigan Medical School (Ann Arbor, Michigan) seeks to fill two tenure-track faculty position...

    Ann Arbor, Michigan

    University of Michigan - Human Genetics

  • Assistant Professor Tenure-Track Faculty Position

    UGA seeks vibrant candidates for tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the Center for Molecular Medicine (CMM). Attractive startup package.

    Athens, Georgia

    Center for Molecular Medicine at the University of Georgia

  • Research Associate (Clinical Research)

    Houston, Texas (US)

    Baylor College of Medicine (BCM)

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links