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.

  • Commentary
  • Published:

Science to prevent disasters

Scientific climate information can save lives and livelihoods, yet its application is not always straightforward. Much of the available information does not describe the risk of threshold events, and misunderstandings can leave society less resilient to climate shocks.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

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

Figure 1: Daily rainfall averaged over Kenya for 2003–2013 (left), with three specific disasters noted as examples.

References

  1. Suarez, P. Linking Climate Knowledge and Decisions: Humanitarian Challenges (The Pardee Papers, No. 7, Boston Univ., 2009).

    Google Scholar 

  2. http://www.climatecentre.org/site/about-us

  3. Knutson, T. R. et al. Nature Geosci. 3, 157–163 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. http://ipcc-wg2.gov/SREX/report/

  5. IPCC Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis (eds Solomon, S. et al.) (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007).

  6. IPCC Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis (eds Stocker, T. F. et al.) (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2013).

  7. Hillbruner, C. & Moloney, G. Global Food Securityhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2012.08.001 (2012).

  8. Lyon, B. & Dewitt, D. Geophys. Res. Lett. 39, L02702 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Fischer, E., Beyerle, U. & Knutti, R. Nature Clim. Change 3, 1033–1038 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Brands, S., Herrera, S., Fernández, J. & Gutiérrez, J. M. Clim. Dyn. 41, 803–817 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Kharin, V. V., Zwiers, F. W., Zhang, X. & Wehner, M. Clim. Change 119, 345–357 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Friedlingstein, P. et al. J. Clim. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00579.1 (2013).

  13. O'Gorman, P. Nature Geosci. 5, 697–700 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Suarez, P. & Patt, A. G. Risk, Decision and Policy 9, 75–89 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Patt, A. G. & Dessai, S. C. R. Geosci. 337, 425–441 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. CDKN. Lessons from the IPCC SREX Report for Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean (2013); available at http://cdkn.org/srex/

  17. Mitchell, T. & van Aalst, M. Headlines from the IPCC Special Report on Extreme Events (2011); http://go.nature.com/6DDkgw

    Google Scholar 

  18. Guy, S., Kashima, Y., Walker, I. & O'Neill, S. Clim. Change 121, 579–594 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Huffman, G. J. et al. J. Hydrometeor. 8, 38–55 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Erin Coughlan de Perez.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

de Perez, E., Monasso, F., van Aalst, M. et al. Science to prevent disasters. Nature Geosci 7, 78–79 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2081

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2081

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

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