Volume 5 Issue 10, October 2015

The Pope's encyclical challenges incremental approaches that have dominated climate change discourse, and brings a much needed moral vision to the environmental movement. Social scientists are required to join this effort.

The Pope has articulated a need to change the way society thinks about economic growth, but it is implausible to rely primarily on moral conversion to solve our environmental and social ills.

The Pope has made a strong call for action on climate change, but it fails to address the complex linkages between sustainable development and demographic growth.

The climate change encyclical represents a decisive democratic act. It calls on citizens to challenge dominant politics, power, and consumer culture in the name of tackling one of the world's great socio-environmental issues.

The Pope's encyclical makes unprecedented progress in developing scientific dialogue with religion by drawing on research, and encouraging further discussion about the ethical challenge of governing the global commons.

The IPCC's new leadership needs to promote reforms to make the panel more relevant to the actors that use the organization's information.

Climate change impacts on species do not occur in isolation. Now research on drought-sensitive British butterflies uses citizen science to attribute the drivers of population changes and shows landscape management to be a key part of the solution.

Policymakers know that the risks associated with climate change mean they need to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. But uncertainty surrounding the likelihood of different scenarios makes choosing specific policies difficult.

Projected future CO₂ levels reduce the growth of juvenile salmon and alter their behaviour, with implications for the productivity of coastal ecosystems unless populations can adapt.

This Perspective explores whether policymakers can learn from adaptive management techniques to make climate policies 'anti-fragile', embracing and benefitting from scientific uncertainty, rather than simply being robust to it.

This Review considers recent advances in our understanding of regional climate change, critically discusses outstanding issues, and recommends targets for future research.

Climate projections are about what typical climate will be, not what each individual season will be. This study considers natural variability combined with projections to allow comparison with seasonal weather and inform adaptation.

A risk assessment framework shows that policymakers’ preferences affect carbon budget choices more than future uncertainties. Such preferences are as important as the much-discussed discount rate.

Climatic extremes can dramatically impact biodiversity. Now, research using comprehensive data on British butterflies reveals how drought and changes in habitat (area and fragmentation) interact to affect population stability.

The relative climate benefits of sustainable forest use versus conservation are much debated. Consequential life-cycle assessment is typically employed to answer this question but results are sensitive to contextual factors including policy institutions.

Pink salmon start life in fresh water before moving to the sea. This study shows that CO₂-induced acidification due to climate change detrimentally affects salmon physiology and behaviour in fresh water and shortly following seawater entry.

In June 2015, the Pope delivered a high-profile encyclical on climate change and the environment. The near-200 page document called for the Catholic church to enter a "dialogue with all people about our common home". This Focus provides a scholarly foundation for that dialogue, with world-leading ecologists, sociologists and economists highlighting the strengths and limitations of the Pope’s call for action.