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Public concern about anthropogenic global warming has been declining despite the scientific consensus on the issue. It is still unknown whether experts’ consensus determines people’s beliefs, and it is not clear if public perception of consensus overrides worldviews known to foster rejection of anthropogenic climate change. New research shows that information about scientific consensus increases acceptance of anthropogenic global warming and neutralizes the effect of worldviews.
Climate change is known to influence insect-induced tree mortality. Research now reveals knock-on implications for municipal water quality in Colorado, USA. Significantly higher levels of harmful disinfection by-products and total organic carbon were found in treatment facilities using water from mountain pine beetle-infested basins compared with unaffected watersheds.
The South Pacific Convergence Zone is the largest rainband in the Southern Hemisphere, and its response to global warming is still undetermined. In this study a hierarchy of climate models show that the uncertainty in rainfall projections in the South Pacific Convergence Zone is the result of two competing mechanisms.
Snowpacks absorb more sunlight as they warm. The Antarctic Plateau may buck this trend over the twenty-first century as increased snowfall there inhibits the snowpack from dimming.
Successful nutrient management has helped many lakes recover from the effects of phosphorus pollution. Now research suggests that climate warming can cause some of the same problems to return.
Mangroves are being lost at an alarming rate as their conversion for aquaculture and other uses is profitable. Research, however, suggests that valuing the deep reserves of carbon in mangrove sediments may be the key to their survival.
As climate models improve, decision-makers' expectations for accurate climate predictions are growing. Natural climate variability, however, limits climate predictability and hampers the ability to guide adaptation in many regions such as North America. Scientists, policymakers and the public need to improve communication and avoid raising expectations for accurate regional predictions everywhere.
Mitigating climate change requires directed innovation efforts to develop and deploy energy technologies. An analysis of these directed efforts finds that efficient end-use technologies contribute large potential emission reductions and provide higher social returns on investment than do energy supply technologies. Yet public institutions, policies and financial resources pervasively privilege energy supply technologies.
This Review focuses on how policymakers and others deal with scientific information about the climate, with the aim of understanding how potentially useful information becomes used (or usable) in practice. A conceptual model of the path between usefulness and usability is presented.
Rice cultivation is one of the largest anthropogenic sources of the greenhouse gas methane. Now a meta-analysis shows that increased atmospheric CO2 (550–743 ppmV) and climate warming (+0.8 °C to +6 °C) can be expected to significantly increase the yield-scaled greenhouse-gas emissions of rice.
