Commentary in 2010

Ocean drilling is the most successful long-standing international collaboration in the geosciences. The invaluable archive of samples and data that has been built underpins our understanding of the Earth, its surface environment and climate. Planning the next phase is at an advanced stage.

Sea-level rise is progressively changing coastlines. The legal implications for the seaward boundaries between neighbouring coastal states are neither straightforward nor foreseeable.

Geoscience has played a key role in the recovery of Haiti since the earthquake, but warnings were not heeded in the political sphere. Along with better houses, an adaptive disaster-management infrastructure that incorporates science needs to be built.

The 2010 Haiti earthquake showed that building codes must be adopted and strictly enforced. Furthermore, timely disaster recovery requires these codes to be supplemented by comprehensive hazard-insurance programmes.

The Census of Marine Life has succeeded in raising awareness about marine biodiversity, and contributed much to our understanding of what lives where. But the project has fallen short of its goal to estimate species abundance.

Short-lived greenhouse gases and black-carbon aerosols have contributed to past climate warming. Curbing their emissions and quantifying the forcing by all short-lived components could both mitigate climate change in the short term and help to refine projections of global warming.

Accusations by sceptics have steered climate researchers into an unproductive battle. They should now rise above the debate and help develop models of the coupled climate–socioeconomic system to advise policymakers.

Science has successfully established the discussion of climate change in the global arena. Following the Copenhagen crisis in climate policy, attention needs to be shifted from global goals to societally relevant, local and pragmatic countermeasures.

Aquifers are the primary source of drinking water for up to two billion people. To avoid overexploitation, lengthy renewal periods of some aquifers must be taken into account.

Between 1960 and 2000, Asian and Latin American food production tripled, thanks to the use of high-yielding varieties of crops. Africa can follow suit, but only if depletion of soil nutrients is addressed.

A multitude of organisms makes soils the fertile factories of food and fibre production, decomposition and nutrient cycling that they are. But tying changes in soil biodiversity to shifts in ecosystem function is a daunting task.

Twitter messages offer first-hand accounts of earthquakes within minutes. Analyses of their content and geographic distribution can be a useful supplement to instrument-based estimates of quake location and magnitude.

Nearly an eighth of the population in Bangladesh relies on arsenic-contaminated drinking water. Arsenic-removal filters could help to reduce exposure, but their price is high for the poor and their maintenance is cumbersome.