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Dealing with the impacts of climate change is better than suffering their full extent — even if it's not the best possible outcome — but to what extent are we doing so?
A flood insurance market with risk-based prices in the UK will only stimulate climate change adaptation if it is part of a wider strategy that includes land-use planning, building regulations and water management.
The effects of climate change on vulnerable communities raise ethical concerns about who should help them cope and how. Research suggests that fair and beneficial solutions are possible, but they always come with risks.
Pests and diseases reduce agricultural yields and are an important wildcard in the evaluation of future climate impacts. A unique global record of pests and diseases provides evidence for poleward expansions of their distributions.
A study reveals that recent warming in the Indian Ocean and in the Pacific 'warm pool' has caused a cooling near the top of the tropical troposphere above, leading to less water vapour entering the stratosphere.
Marine vegetated habitats occupy a small fraction of the ocean surface, but contribute about 50% of the carbon that is buried in marine sediments. In this Review the potential benefits of conservation, restoration and use of these habitats for coastal protection and climate change mitigation are assessed.
The amount of water required for electricity generation is expected to increase as CO2 emissions are reduced. A capacity expansion model of the Texas electricity grid in the USA demonstrates the trade-offs between CO2 emissions and water use in designing the power generation mix. Better understanding of the ‘water–energy nexus’ should help to coordinate mitigation and adaptation planning in the energy sector.
Climate extremes are on the increase. Research into mortality from extremes of heat in Stockholm now shows that during the period 1980–2009 mortality was double that likely to have occurred without climate change. Moreover, the frequency of cold extremes also increased slightly, despite higher average winter temperatures, contributing to a small increase in mortality during the winter months.
The role of temporal discounting in group decisions is poorly understood. A group experiment on collective risk in the context of climate change is used to analyse cooperative behaviour under different timeframes for the realization of the cooperation benefits. Results show that gains that are delayed significantly into the future—intergenerational discounting—markedly diminish cooperation.
Larval stages are particularly vulnerable to environmental changes. The impact of ocean acidification on the digestive processes of sea urchin larvae is shown to decrease efficiency owing to a drop in stomach pH. Despite compensatory feeding, the larval energy budget is likely to be affected.
The traditional view of the open ocean is that surface waters should change faster and that the deep waters should be relatively stable. Now research shows that the depths of the Southern Ocean are also rapidly freshening and warming, and that these changes are spreading towards the Equator.
