Browse Articles

From a scientific standpoint, the causes of current ongoing climate change are well established. But in the context of rapid change, and real-world consequences, there is still room — and need — for scientific discussion in climate change fields.

Eliminating government infrastructure spending, public disaster insurance and post-disaster aid in high-risk coastal areas reduces development there and leads to lower flood damages and higher property values on nearby lands. The strategic withdrawal of development incentives could be used more broadly to reduce climate risks.

Scientists play a crucial role in addressing climate change. Using a large-scale international survey, this study explores scientists’ beliefs about climate change and their perceived barriers to climate change engagement.

Adaptation requires limiting exposure to climate threats, and policies should focus on curbing development in risky areas. By examining the Coastal Barrier Resources Act, researchers demonstrate that removing financial incentives for development can lower climate risks and damages.

Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) are an important international initiative to address the urgent coal phase-out issue in emerging economies. Model-based assessment demonstrates JETPs for South Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam provide a promising route for achieving the 1.5 °C target.

Protection afforded by inorganic minerals is assumed to make mineral-associated organic carbon less susceptible to loss under climate change than particulate organic carbon. However, a global study of soil organic carbon from drylands suggests that this is not the case.

Both extreme weather events and long-term gradual changes drive human migration, which could aggravate the burden of infectious diseases. This Perspective examines the complex interplay between climate change, migration and infectious diseases then advocates for context-specific adaptations.

Climate impacts are triggering a host of novel bio- and geoengineering interventions to save coral reefs. This Comment challenges heroic scientific assumptions and advocates for a more systemic, evidence-based approach to caring for coral reefs.

Reef-building corals are declining globally, putting important ecosystem services at risk. Here we discuss the potential risks and benefits of coral ecological replacement, in which new species are introduced to replace the functional roles of species that have declined or disappeared.

Coral reefs are at risk from ongoing climate change. We can best serve the reefs by invoking realistic scenarios, empiricism, artificial intelligence and falsification to self-correct the current scientific limits that hinder climate science predictions, communication and policies.

Analysis of high-resolution climate models reveals a substantial reduction in global oceanic kinetic energy under global warming. This reduction of oceanic kinetic energy is mainly due to weakened mesoscale eddies in the deep ocean.

Studies show climate change will alter the ocean, with increased surface layer kinetic energy. This work, using full ocean depth and high-resolution projections with a high-emission scenario, shows an overall ocean kinetic energy decrease due to a calmer deep ocean with weaker mesoscale eddies.

The future of carbon dynamics in the northern high latitudes is uncertain yet represents an important potential feedback under climate change. This study uses a comprehensive observational dataset to show an increasing carbon sink in non-permafrost systems; in permafrost systems uptake was offset by loss.

Climate change threatens the role of forests as long-term carbon sinks. Tree planting programmes that incorporate assisted migration of tree species and seed sources can help to mitigate this impact.

Assisted migration is the artificial movement of species and populations to increase forest resilience. Here the authors model how targeted assisted migration can preserve or enhance the European forest carbon sink under future climate scenarios.