Featured
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Where I Work |
How ground glass might save crops from drought on a Caribbean island
In Grenada, public-health researcher Lindonne Telesford tests a soil additive made from recycled glass that could help farmers adapt to climate change.
- Kendall Powell
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Comment |
Will AI accelerate or delay the race to net-zero emissions?
As artificial intelligence transforms the global economy, researchers need to explore scenarios to assess how it can help, rather than harm, the climate.
- Amy Luers
- , Jonathan Koomey
- & Eric Horvitz
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News |
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is ‘transforming’ because of repeated coral bleaching
The coral reef is experiencing its worst mass bleaching event on record — and warming waters brought on by climate change are to blame.
- Bianca Nogrady
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News |
Nearly half of China’s major cities are sinking — some ‘rapidly’
Tens of millions of people in the country’s coastal lands might find their homes below sea level by 2120 owing to sinking and sea-level rise.
- Xiaoying You
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Article
| Open Access
The economic commitment of climate change
Analysis of projected sub-national damages from temperature and precipitation show an income reduction of 19% of the world economy within the next 26 years independent of future emission choices.
- Maximilian Kotz
- , Anders Levermann
- & Leonie Wenz
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Correspondence |
Use game theory for climate models that really help reach net zero goals
- Kathleen B. Aviso
- , Raymond R. Tan
- & Maria Victoria Migo-Sumagang
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News Explainer |
Do climate lawsuits lead to action? Researchers assess their impact
Litigation can lead governments to strengthen their climate policies and curb companies’ greenwashing, say scientists.
- Carissa Wong
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News |
Lethal dust storms blanket Asia every spring — now AI could help predict them
As the annual phenomenon once again strikes East Asia, scientists are hard at work to better predict how they will affect people.
- Xiaoying You
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Editorial |
What happens when climate change and the mental-health crisis collide?
The warming planet is worsening mental illness and distress. Researchers need to work out the scale of the problem and how those who need assistance can be helped.
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Nature Podcast |
The ‘ghost roads’ driving tropical deforestation
Researchers find that a huge number of roads that don’t appear on official maps, and the protein that could determine whether someone is left-handed.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Benjamin Thompson
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News Feature |
The rise of eco-anxiety: scientists wake up to the mental-health toll of climate change
Researchers want to unpick how climate change affects mental health around the world — from lives that are disrupted by catastrophic weather to people who are anxious about the future.
- Helen Pearson
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News |
Iran frees scientists who studied big cats in surprise move
Six-year ordeal for researchers studying Asiatic cheetah and Persian leopard ends in prisoner amnesty.
- Michele Catanzaro
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Research Highlight |
Baseball-sized hail in Spain began with a heatwave at sea
Climate change is partly to blame for a storm that pounded Girona province with record-breaking hailstones.
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Research Highlight |
Sea spray carries huge amounts of ‘forever chemicals’ into the air
Long-lived compounds emitted by industry reach the oceans and are then ferried by bubbles into the atmosphere.
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Editorial |
The EU’s ominous emphasis on ‘open strategic autonomy’ in research
A reboot of the flagship Horizon Europe fund risks prioritizing a mindset geared towards security over open, future-facing research collaboration.
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Nature Podcast |
Pregnancy’s effect on ‘biological’ age, polite birds, and the carbon cost of home-grown veg
We round up some recent stories from the Nature Briefing.
- Benjamin Thompson
- , Noah Baker
- & Flora Graham
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Correspondence |
Don’t dismiss carbon credits that aim to avoid future emissions
- Edward Mitchard
- , Peter Ellis
- & Roselyn Fosuah Adjei
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Comment |
A 2023 hurricane caught Mexico off guard: we must work together to prepare better
Hurricane Otis yields lessons for researchers and policymakers on how to reduce risks in the face of inequality.
- Gian C. Delgado-Ramos
- , Simone Lucatello
- & Miguel Imaz-Lamadrid
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News & Views |
The surprising history of the Southern Ocean’s super current
Reconstructions of the strength of a powerful current that circles the South Pole reveal that it has undergone no long-term change in the past five million years, even though Earth cooled substantially over that time.
- Natalie J. Burls
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News Explainer |
Divisive Sun-dimming study at Harvard cancelled: what’s next?
As the climate crisis rages on, advocacy for testing controversial solar geoengineering technology is ramping up.
- Jeff Tollefson
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News & Views Forum |
Melting ice solves leap-second problem — for now
Humans’ effect on the polar ice sheets is slowing Earth’s rotation, posing challenges for its alignment with the official time standard. Two researchers discuss the science behind the slowdown and the impact it has on timekeeping.
- Patrizia Tavella
- & Jerry X. Mitrovica
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News |
Climate change has slowed Earth’s rotation — and could affect how we keep time
The effect of melting polar ice could delay the need for a ‘leap second’ by three years.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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Nature Podcast |
How climate change is affecting global timekeeping
Melting polar ice could delay major time adjustment, and the strange connection between brain inflammation and memory.
- Elizabeth Gibney
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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Article
| Open Access
Five million years of Antarctic Circumpolar Current strength variability
The strength of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, as traced in sediment cores from the Pacific Southern Ocean, shows no linear long-term trend over the past 5.3 Myr; instead, the strongest flow occurs consistently in warmer-than-present intervals.
- Frank Lamy
- , Gisela Winckler
- & Xiangyu Zhao
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Correspondence |
Don’t underestimate the rising threat of groundwater to coastal cities
- Daniel J. Rozell
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Editorial |
Deep-sea mining plans should not be rushed
Why are companies and governments determined to start commercial-scale mining for rare metals, when so little is known about its wider impacts?
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News Feature |
How AI is improving climate forecasts
Researchers are using various machine-learning strategies to speed up climate modelling, reduce its energy costs and hopefully improve accuracy.
- Carissa Wong
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Comment |
How a tree-hugging protest transformed Indian environmentalism
Fifty years ago, a group of women from the villages of the Western Himalayas sparked Chipko, a green movement that remains relevant in the age of climate change.
- Seema Mundoli
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Comment |
How to achieve safe water access for all: work with local communities
Four scientists reflect on how to foster a more sustainable relationship between water and society amid complex and wide-ranging challenges.
- Farhana Sultana
- , Tara McAllister
- & Michael D. Blackstock
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Editorial |
Are we in the Anthropocene yet?
Measurement matters, but should not detract from the reality that humans are altering Earth systems.
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News |
It’s final: the Anthropocene is not an epoch, despite protest over vote
Governing body upholds earlier decision by geoscientists amid drama.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article
| Open Access
Global prediction of extreme floods in ungauged watersheds
Artificial intelligence-based forecasting improves the reliability of predicting extreme flood events in ungauged watersheds, with predictions at five days lead time that are as good as current systems are for same-day predictions.
- Grey Nearing
- , Deborah Cohen
- & Yossi Matias
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World View |
Climate models can’t explain 2023’s huge heat anomaly — we could be in uncharted territory
Taking into account all known factors, the planet warmed 0.2 °C more last year than climate scientists expected. More and better data are urgently needed.
- Gavin Schmidt
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Essay |
Are we all doomed? How to cope with the daunting uncertainties of climate change
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when thinking about the damage that might be wrought by global warming — but that is missing the point.
- Adam Sobel
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News |
Ditching ‘Anthropocene’: why ecologists say the term still matters
Beyond stratigraphic definitions, the name has broader significance for understanding humans’ place on Earth.
- David Adam
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News & Views |
Drought-fuelled overnight burning propels large fires in North America
Burning events that occur at night have been revealed as a driver of large wildfires. Prolonged drought conditions are to blame, making it easier for fires to spread at night when they would ordinarily slow or extinguish completely.
- Jennifer K. Balch
- & Adam L. Mahood
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Article |
Drought triggers and sustains overnight fires in North America
By examining the hourly diurnal cycle of 23,557 fires in North America during 2017–2020, 1,095 overnight burning events were identified, mostly associated with extreme fires and driven by long-term drought conditions.
- Kaiwei Luo
- , Xianli Wang
- & Mike Flannigan
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News |
China–US climate collaboration concerns as Xie and Kerry step down
The friendship between the two men survived hostile moments between their countries.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Where I Work |
Why I wander with wonder through Lesotho’s wetlands
Lerato Seleteng-Kose studies the unique plants that live in these cold, remote parts of southern Africa.
- Linda Nordling
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Career Q&A |
This geologist communicates science from the ski slopes
How Karin Kirk finds a balance between twin careers of science writing and skiing instruction.
- Miles Lizak
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Comment |
The world must rethink plans for ageing oil and gas platforms
Earth’s oceans are awash with ageing energy infrastructure. A change in the law is needed to ensure that these structures are decommissioned in ways that maximize environmental and societal benefits.
- Antony Knights
- , Anaëlle Lemasson
- & Paul Somerfield
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Matters Arising |
Model uncertainty obscures major driver of soil carbon
- Xianjin He
- , Rose Z. Abramoff
- & Daniel S. Goll
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News |
Geologists reject the Anthropocene as Earth’s new epoch — after 15 years of debate
But some are now challenging the vote, saying there were ‘procedural irregularities’.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Trump versus Biden: what the rematch could mean for three key science issues
Depending on the winner of November’s election, researchers anticipate two completely different paths ahead for the environment, public health and more.
- Jeff Tollefson
- , Natasha Gilbert
- & Mariana Lenharo
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Nature Podcast |
These tiny fish combine electric pulses to probe the environment
Elephantnose fish share electric pulses to extend their senses, and the bumblebees that show a uniquely human trait.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Benjamin Thompson
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World View |
Megafires are here to stay — and blaming only climate change won’t help
It’s not just global warming that’s driving the growth in destructive wildfires. Better land management is the first step to mitigating the risks.
- Renata Libonati
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News Feature |
How five crucial elections in 2024 could shape climate action for decades
Some of the world’s biggest carbon emitters are going to the polls this year — the results could determine whether humanity can correct its trajectory of dangerous global warming.
- Smriti Mallapaty
- , Jeff Tollefson
- & Nisha Gaind
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Research Highlight |
Why sunsets were a weird colour after Krakatau blew its top
Evening skies, which are usually red after a volcanic eruption, were instead emerald after the 1883 event.
European ruling linking climate change to human rights could be a game changer — here’s how