Growing evidence demonstrates that climatic conditions can have a profound impact on the functioning of modern human societies, but effects on economic activity appear inconsistent. Fundamental productive elements of modern economies, such as workers and crops, exhibit highly non-linear responses to local temperature even in wealthy countries. In contrast, aggregate macroeconomic productivity of entire wealthy countries is reported not to respond to temperature, while poor countries respond only linearly.
The decision to use the Montreal Protocol to reduce the impact of refrigerants on global warming is a step forward ahead of the Paris climate summit. (Editorial)
Over two centuries of economic growth have put undeniable pressure on the ecological systems that underpin human well-being. While it is agreed that these pressures are increasing, views divide on how they may be alleviated. Some suggest technological advances will automatically keep us from transgressing key environmental thresholds; others that policy reform can reconcile economic and ecological goals; while a third school argues that only a fundamental shift in societal values can keep human demands within the Earth’s ecological limits.
Whether or not an increase in meltwater will make ice sheets move more quickly has been contentious, because water lubricates the ice–rock interface and speeds up the ice, but also stimulates the development of efficient drainage; now, a long-term and large-area study of a land-terminating margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet finds that more meltwater does not equal higher velocity.
The El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) influences global climate as well as extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and tropical cyclones, leading to large societal impacts globally have shown that El Niño—the warm phase of ENSO—effectively discharges oceanic heat into the central to eastern North Pacific basin through the subsurface ocean after its wintertime peak, resulting in high tropical cyclone activity during the following tropical cyclone peak season in the eastern North Pacific, which has significant implications for seasonal prediction of tropical cyclone activity in the
Researchers hope to show that using the gas as a raw material could make an impact on climate change.
On 29 September, the XPRIZE Foundation based in Culver City, California, announced a 4½-year competition that will award US$20 million to the research team that can come up with the best way to turn carbon dioxide from a liability into an asset.
The island nation of Kiribati is one of the world's most vulnerable to rising sea levels. But residents may have to leave well before the ocean claims their homes.
The world's first vaccine against malaria should be rolled out in limited 'pilot' demonstrations in Africa, an advisory group to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva said on 23 October. The demonstrations — involving up to 1 million children — are needed because the vaccine is ineffective against malaria unless children receive four doses spread out over 18 months, and even then offers only modest protection. (Editorial)
