Climate Change Series

Bolivia's fast-melting glaciers are leaving behind lakes that could cause catastrophic floods

Oct 21, 2016 09:56 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Bolivias glaciers have shrunk by more than 40% in the past few decades. This puts further pressure on an already stressed water supply, while the meltwater lakes left behind risk collapsing in sudden and catastrophic...

Catching the waves: it's time to embrace ocean renewable energy

Oct 18, 2016 05:59 am UTC| Nature

Wind and solar may be currently leading the way in Australias renewable energy race, but theres another contender lurking in the nations oceans. Australia arguably possesses the worlds largest wave energy resource,...

Climate Change Series

How a saviour of the ozone hole became a climate change villain – and how we're going to fix it

Oct 18, 2016 05:40 am UTC| Nature

Over the weekend, international leaders meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, agreed to a remarkable deal to phase-out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), used as refrigerants and propellants. HFCs are potent greenhouse gases. The...

Climate Change Series

'We must keep the lights on': how a cyclone was used to attack renewables

Oct 04, 2016 08:17 am UTC| Nature

The mid-latitude cyclone with no name that hit South Australia last week, spawning two tornadoes and 80,000 electricity strikes, destroyed 22 massive transmission towers carrying electricity across the state. The...

Climate Change Series

How to Think About 1.5 Degrees

Oct 04, 2016 07:38 am UTC| Nature

Astonishment was universal last December when the Paris Agreement on climate change included the aspiration to limit warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, a much tougher target than the standard of 2 degrees,...

Climate Change Series

Stop sending climate consultants to poor countries – invest in universities instead

Oct 04, 2016 07:32 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

As we edge closer to global consensus on climate change and the need to reduce emissions, the focus has moved from debating the science or the need for global action to the responsibility of individual countries to provide...

Climate Change Series

What do sugar and climate change have in common? Misplaced scepticism of the science

Sep 30, 2016 12:41 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Why do we think that climate sceptics are irrational? A major reason is that almost none of them have any genuine expertise in climate science (most have no scientific expertise at all), yet theyre confident that they know...