Volume 6 Issue 8, August 2016

In the aftermath of COP21, potential post-2030 emission trajectories and their consistency with the 2 °C target are a core concern for the ocean scientific community in light of the end-century risks of impact scenarios.

The academic community could make rapid progress on quantifying the impacts of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, but a refocusing of research priorities is needed in order to provide reliable advice.

The impacts of climate change imply a reconceptualization of environment-related criminality. Criminology can offer insight into the definitions and dynamics of this behaviour, and outline potential areas of redress.

The Paris Agreement gave the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage a permanent and potentially prominent place in climate negotiations, but beyond that its impact remains wide open for interpretation.

The unprecedented recent intensification of the Pacific trade winds cannot simply be explained by natural variability alone. Now research finds that the more local influence of sulfate aerosols of human and volcanic origin play a significant role, in addition to the Pacific's coupling to the Atlantic Ocean via the 'atmospheric bridge'.

Science-based role-play simulation exercises involving face-to-face mock decision-making have potential as education and engagement tools for enhancing readiness to adapt to climate change, as results from two research projects show.

Climate change may accelerate decomposition of soil carbon leading to a reinforcing cycle of further warming and soil carbon loss. This Review considers the uncertainties and modelling challenges involved in projecting soil responses to warming.

Previous research suggests knowledge about climate change has only a limited impact on concern about the issue. A multinational survey shows this negative result largely depends on how knowledge is defined.

Public understanding of climate change is well researched, but little is known about public perceptions of ocean acidification. New survey data shows that public awareness of ocean acidification in Great Britain is low compared to that of climate change.

The Pacific trade winds have been strengthening over the past two decades, but until now the cause of this has not been known. Now research shows that sulfate aerosols caused the western North Pacific Ocean to warm, leading to the trade-wind intensification.

This study presents a new use of a widely used metric known as the global warming potential (GWP) to compare the impact of cumulative climate pollutants such as CO₂ versus short-lived climate pollutants, such as methane and black carbon.

This study shows that 80% of extracted groundwater ends up in the ocean and contributed 0.27 mm per year to sea-level rise in 2000. These numbers indicate that previous studies overestimated groundwater contributions over the past century.

Wildfire damage is expected to increase under climate warming. Research now suggests that increased human exposure to wildfires will be driven primarily by population growth in areas with frequent wildfires, rather than by a general increase in fire area.

Increasing atmospheric CO₂ concentrations are expected to enhance photosynthesis and reduce plant water use. Research now reveals regional disparities in this effect on crops, with potential implications for food production and water consumption.

Satellite records combined with global ecosystem models show a persistent and widespread greening over 25–50% of the global vegetated area; less than 4% of the globe is browning. CO₂ fertilization explains 70% of the observed greening trend.

Adaptation plans are an increasingly important part of US communities’ responses to climate change, but little is known about their content. Analysis of 44 plans shows that most fail to prioritize impacts or provide detailed implementation processes.