Climate change articles within Nature

Featured

  • News |

    Philanthropic support for climate-change issues tripled in 2008.

    • Laura Thompson Osuri

  • Summer Books |

    David Orr explains how two environmentalists' manifestos bracket the debate on climate change — one favouring technological solutions, the other local interventions.

    • David Orr

  • Letter |

    Climate change does not occur symmetrically; instead, in a process called polar amplification, polar areas warm faster than the tropics. Recent work indicated that transport processes in the upper atmosphere account for much of the recent polar amplification, but this conclusion proved controversial. Here, updated reanalysis data have been used to show that reductions in sea ice are instead responsible.

    • James A. Screen
    •  & Ian Simmonds

  • Letter |

    Our current concepts of abrupt climate change are influenced by palaeoclimate evidence for events such as the Younger Dryas cold interval, in which massive climate changes occurred essentially instantaneously. It is thought that an injection of fresh water from the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet altered the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and triggered the Younger Dryas, but convincing geological evidence has been elusive. Here, a major flood event that is chronologically consistent with the Younger Dryas has been identified—through the MacKenzie River into the Arctic Ocean.

    • Julian B. Murton
    • , Mark D. Bateman
    •  & Zhirong Yang

  • Letter |

    It has been inferred that, during the Archaean eon, there must have been a high concentration of atmospheric CO2 and/or CH4, causing a greenhouse effect that would have compensated for the lower solar luminosity at the time and allowed liquid water to be stable in the hydrosphere. Here it is shown, however, that the mineralogy of Archaean sediments is inconsistent with such high concentrations of greenhouse gases. Instead it is proposed that a lower albedo on the Earth helped to moderate surface temperature.

    • Minik T. Rosing
    • , Dennis K. Bird
    •  & Christian J. Bjerrum

  • News |

    Researchers fail to come up with clear guidelines for experiments that change the planet's climate.

    • Jeff Tollefson

  • News & Views |

    The flux of carbon from soils to the atmosphere has apparently increased with climate warming. But does this reflect a net loss of carbon to the atmosphere that could exacerbate climate change?

    • Pete Smith
    •  & Changming Fang

  • Books & Arts |

    Four books by prominent global-warming pundits illustrate that exhortation and authority are not enough to solve the climate crisis — it is time for some humility, concludes Roger Pielke Jr.

    • Roger Pielke Jr

  • Editorial |

    The integrity of climate research has taken a very public battering in recent months. Scientists must now emphasize the science, while acknowledging that they are in a street fight.

  • News |

    Attack sparks memories of McCarthy witch-hunt.

    • Jeff Tollefson

  • Letter |

    Palaeoclimate data show that 3–5 million years ago in the early Pliocene the equatorial Pacific experienced persistent warm, El Niño conditions. Here a hurricane model and a coupled climate model show a feedback between sea surface temperature and frequent hurricanes that could account for such conditions.

    • Alexey V. Fedorov
    • , Christopher M. Brierley
    •  & Kerry Emanuel

  • News & Views |

    What was responsible for the unusual climatic conditions that prevailed during the early Pliocene, 5 million to 3 million years ago? Modelling studies point to intense tropical-cyclone activity as a possible answer.

    • Ryan L. Sriver

  • News Feature |

    A new generation of sophisticated Earth models is gearing up for its first major test. But added complexity may lead to greater uncertainty about the future climate, finds Olive Heffernan.

    • Olive Heffernan

  • Editorial |

    Exploding the myths surrounding how and why we select our research papers.

  • Opinion |

    As calls for reform intensify following recent furores about e-mails, conflicts of interest, glaciers and extreme weather, five climatologists propose ways forward for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Their suggestions range from reaffirming the panel' governing principles to increasing the number and speed of its publications to replacing the volunteer organization with a permanently staffed structure.

  • News |

    Climate body slammed for errors and potential conflicts of interest.

    • Quirin Schiermeier

  • Authors |

    Wealth of data cuts uncertainty in climate-warming predictions.

  • News & Views |

    A probabilistic analysis of climate variation during the period AD 1050–1800 refines available estimates of the influence of temperature change on the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

    • Hugues Goosse

  • Editorial |

    With climate-change sceptics waiting to pounce on any scientific uncertainties, researchers need a sophisticated strategy for communication.

  • News Feature |

    Like any other field, research on climate change has some fundamental gaps, although not the ones typically claimed by sceptics. Quirin Schiermeier takes a hard look at some of the biggest problem areas.

    • Quirin Schiermeier

  • Letter |

    The elevation of the Tibetan plateau is thought to cause its surface to serve as a heat source that drives the South Asian summer monsoon, potentially coupling uplift of the plateau to climate changes on geologic timescales. Here, however, an atmospheric model is used to show that flattening of the Tibetan plateau has little effect on the monsoon, provided that the narrow orography of the Himalayas and adjacent mountain ranges is preserved.

    • William R. Boos
    •  & Zhiming Kuang

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