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Volume 5 Issue 8, August 2015

Editorial

  • This year is make or break for climate and a sustainable future. The opportunity to make genuine progress on these grand societal challenges must not be squandered.

    Editorial

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Correspondence

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Commentary

  • The third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction ended with an agreement lacking ambition. The conference showed that better communication between the scientific community and decision-makers is needed to develop informed frameworks.

    • Colin Walch
    Commentary
  • How can we measure disaster loss reduction in the absence of reliable loss data on the economic and human impacts? Existing loss accounting systems vastly underestimate the true burden of disasters, both nationally and globally.

    • Susan L. Cutter
    • Melanie Gall
    Commentary
  • Reforming fossil fuel subsidies could free up enough funds to finance universal access to water, sanitation, and electricity in many countries, as well as helping to cut global greenhouse-gas emissions.

    • Michael Jakob
    • Claudine Chen
    • Ottmar Edenhofer
    Commentary
  • Global flood risk models were developed to identify risk hotspots in a world with increasing flood occurrence. Here we assess the ability and limitations of the current models and suggest what is needed moving forward.

    • Philip J. Ward
    • Brenden Jongman
    • Hessel C. Winsemius
    Commentary
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News Feature

  • Health impacts have been excluded from assessments of palm oil production but they could alter governments' view of the industry.

    • Elisabeth Jeffries
    News Feature
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Research Highlights

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News & Views

  • Climate change continues to be a controversial issue among political elites in the US. New research shows how ideological views become entrenched through 'echo chambers'.

    • Justin Farrell
    News & Views
  • Persistent drought in the Sahel in the 1970s and 1980s was caused by subtle changes in global sea surface temperatures. Now model results show that the direct effect of increasing greenhouse-gas concentrations led to the subsequent recovery.

    • Alessandra Giannini
    News & Views
  • Diatoms are important primary producers in the ocean, however their response to rising CO2 is uncertain. Now research shows how diatoms regulate their metabolism in response to changing CO2.

    • Jodi N. Young
    • François M. M. Morel
    News & Views
  • Submarine permafrost thaw in the Arctic has been suggested as a trigger for the release of large quantities of methane to the water column, and subsequently the atmosphere — with important implications for global warming. Now research shows that microbial oxidation of methane at the thaw front can effectively prevent its release.

    • Brett F. Thornton
    • Patrick Crill
    News & Views
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Perspective

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Review Article

  • Understanding past climate should help reduce uncertainties in projections of future climate. This Review of palaeosimulation evaluations suggests that existing models capture broad patterns of climate change, but that further improvement is needed.

    • S. P. Harrison
    • P. J. Bartlein
    • M. Kageyama
    Review Article
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Letter

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Article

  • Empirical analysis of climate change debates in the US Congress shows that policymakers are most likely to seek out experts confirming their existing views. That information then gets disseminated among like-minded individuals in ‘echo chambers’.

    • Lorien Jasny
    • Joseph Waggle
    • Dana R. Fisher

    Collection:

    Article
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Corrigendum

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