Nature Climate Change Contents August 2012 Volume 2 Number 8 pp 555-634

TABLE OF CONTENTS August 2012 Volume 2, Issue 8 Editorial Correspondence Commentaries News Feature Snapshot Interview Policy Watch Research Highlights Correction News and Views Perspective Review Letters Article Addendum Beyond Boundaries Subscribe   Facebook   RSS   Recommend to library   Twitter   Advertisement Nature Communications #4 in multidisciplinary sciences with first Impact Factor Nature Communications has joined Nature at the top of the multidisciplinary sciences category with its first impact factor of 7.396. Launched in April 2010, Nature Communications is a multidisciplinary online-only journal publishing high quality research across the natural sciences. *2011 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2012)   Editorial Top The human factor p555 doi:10.1038/nclimate1657 Paucity of information on the potentially complex responses of individuals and societies to climate change policies is a barrier to effective action. Full Text | PDF Correspondence Top Radar backscatter is not a 'direct measure' of forest biomass pp556 - 557 Iain H. Woodhouse, Edward T. A Mitchard, Matthew Brolly, Danae Maniatis and Casey M. Ryan doi:10.1038/nclimate1601 Full Text | PDF Commentaries Top Geothermal energy in China pp557 - 560 Shaopeng Huang doi:10.1038/nclimate1598 The potential for power generation from geothermal energy in China is vast but as yet largely untapped. Full Text | PDF Measuring the carbon emissions of megacities pp560 - 562 Riley M. Duren and Charles E. Miller doi:10.1038/nclimate1629 Carbon emissions from cities represent the single largest human contribution to climate change. Here we present a vision, strategy and roadmap for an international framework to assess directly the carbon emission trends of the world's megacities. Full Text | PDF News Feature Top Measurement challenges pp563 - 565 Monica Contestabile doi:10.1038/nclimate1642 Tools and methodologies for reducing uncertainties in climate change knowledge are now available, but it is disputed to what extent increased confidence in data will lead to increased action on carbon emissions. Full Text | PDF Snapshot Top Hunger and climate p566 Bronwyn Wake doi:10.1038/nclimate1647 Full Text | PDF Interview Top Agricultural futures p567 doi:10.1038/nclimate1638 Cynthia Rosenzweig heads the Climate Impacts Group at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. Recently she has taken on another role co-leading the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project. She explains that task to Nature Climate Change. Full Text | PDF Policy Watch Top Legislating for energy efficiency pp568 - 569 Sonja van Renssen doi:10.1038/nclimate1637 Full implementation of the European Union's new energy-efficiency law faces many hurdles, explains Sonja van Renssen. Full Text | PDF Research Highlights Top Phenology: Tracking plant performance | Forestry: REDD costs and uncertainties | Communication: New focus in climate messages | Policy: Australian building codes | Atmospheric science: Aerosol-driven warming | Economics: Responsibilities shared | Marine biogeochemistry: Algae to atmosphere | Regime change: Savannah Shift Correction Top Flexible water investments p571 doi:10.1038/nclimate1645 Full Text | PDF News and Views Top Psychology: Fear and hope in climate messages pp572 - 573 Paul C. Stern doi:10.1038/nclimate1610 Scientists often expect fear of climate change and its impacts to motivate public support of climate policies. A study suggests that climate change deniers don't respond to this, but that positive appeals can change their views. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Paul G. Bain et al. Policy: Public support for clean energy pp573 - 574 Michael Hanemann doi:10.1038/nclimate1640 The political deadlock around national renewable energy mandates in the US does not reflect the public's position. Research shows that people there would support a renewable energy standard even with a cost attached. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Joseph E. Aldy et al. Meteorology: Counting the coming storms pp574 - 575 Ed Hawkins and Pier Luigi Vidale doi:10.1038/nclimate1639 Tropical Atlantic storms impact the lives of many thousands of people each year. A study describes how different future anthropogenic emission pathways may change the frequency of these storms. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Gabriele Villarini et al. Nature Climate Change JOBS of the week Career Opportunities in Climate Research Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction (CliSAP) Philomathia Postdoctoral Fellowship in Energy and Climate Research University of California, Berkeley Postdoc - Ocean Controls Future Ocean Post Doc Appointee - Geophysics and Atmospheric Science Sandia National Laboratories CIFAR Junior Fellowship in Earth System Evolution Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) More Science jobs from Nature Climate Change EVENT More science events from Perspective Top Relative outcomes of climate change mitigation related to global temperature versus sea-level rise pp576 - 580 Gerald A. Meehl, Aixue Hu, Claudia Tebaldi, Julie M. Arblaster, Warren M. Washington, Haiyan Teng, Benjamin M. Sanderson, Toby Ault, Warren G. Strand and James B. White doi:10.1038/nclimate1529 A modelling study shows that cutting greenhouse-gas emissions has the potential to stabilize global temperature increases, but predicts that sea level will continue to rise for centuries, and rapidly so, unless aggressive mitigation measures are set in place. Full Text | PDF Review Top Human drivers of national greenhouse-gas emissions pp581 - 586 Eugene A. Rosa and Thomas Dietz doi:10.1038/nclimate1506 Human stress on the environment has long been debated and different views about the human drivers of greenhouse-gas emissions have emerged. Now research synthesizes the debate by looking at empirical evidence and offers new insights on the role of human population, affluence, urbanization, trade, culture and institutions on greenhouse-gas emissions trends. Full Text | PDF Climate change and the South Asian summer monsoon pp587 - 595 Andrew G. Turner and H. Annamalai doi:10.1038/nclimate1495 More than one billion people live in regions affected by the South Asian summer monsoon. This Review provides an overview of our understanding of summer monsoon rainfall variability and its causes, and considers how the monsoon will change as a consequence of global warming. Full Text | PDF Letters Top Willingness to pay and political support for a US national clean energy standard pp596 - 599 Joseph E. Aldy, Matthew J. Kotchen and Anthony A. Leiserowitz doi:10.1038/nclimate1527 In 2010 and 2011, Republicans and Democrats in the United States proposed mandating clean electricity generation. Research has now analysed public support for a national clean energy standard (NCES) and found that the average US citizen is willing to bear an annual 13% increase in electricity bills in support of a NCES that requires 80% clean energy by 2035. Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Michael Hanemann Promoting pro-environmental action in climate change deniers pp600 - 603 Paul G. Bain, Matthew J. Hornsey, Renata Bongiorno and Carla Jeffries doi:10.1038/nclimate1532 Public denial of anthropogenic climate change is significant in Western democracies. Experts assume that deniers would only act pro-environmentally if they were convinced that climate change is real, and therefore urge better communication of climate change risks. Research shows that focusing on the positive societal effects of climate change mitigation efforts can motivate deniers’ pro-environmental actions. Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Paul C. Stern Twenty-first-century projections of North Atlantic tropical storms from CMIP5 models pp604 - 607 Gabriele Villarini and Gabriel A. Vecchi doi:10.1038/nclimate1530 This study looks at changes in North Atlantic tropical storm occurrence in the twenty-first century, and finds that over the first half of the century, storm frequency increases were caused by radiative forcing changes, not increasing carbon dioxide. The chaotic nature of the climate system and the climate response to radiative forcing are the largest uncertainties in North Atlantic tropical storm frequency. Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Ed Hawkins et al. Impact of intensified Indian Ocean winds on mesoscale variability in the Agulhas system pp608 - 612 Björn C. Backeberg, Pierrick Penven and Mathieu Rouault doi:10.1038/nclimate1587 South of Africa, the Agulhas ocean current system transports warm, salty water from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. This study shows that the mesoscale variability of the Agulhas system has intensified over recent decades, apparently owing to enhanced trade winds over the tropical Indian Ocean. Full Text | PDF Eurasian Arctic greening reveals teleconnections and the potential for structurally novel ecosystems pp613 - 618 Marc Macias-Fauria, Bruce C. Forbes, Pentti Zetterberg and Timo Kumpula doi:10.1038/nclimate1558 Increasing shrub cover on Arctic tundra is linked to climate warming, which is partially amplified by sea ice feedbacks, but the nature of these interactions remains poorly understood. Now research indicates that tundra plant productivity in late spring relates to sea-ice-driven temperature amplification but that the growing season peak is more closely associated with persistent large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns. Full Text | PDF Extinction debt of high-mountain plants under twenty-first-century climate change pp619 - 622 Stefan Dullinger, Andreas Gattringer, Wilfried Thuiller, Dietmar Moser, Niklaus E. Zimmermann, Antoine Guisan, Wolfgang Willner, Christoph Plutzar, Michael Leitner, Thomas Mang, Marco Caccianiga, Thomas Dirnböck, Siegrun Ertl, Anton Fischer, Jonathan Lenoir, Jens-Christian Svenning, Achilleas Psomas, Dirk R. Schmatz, Urban Silc, Pascal Vittoz and Karl Hülber doi:10.1038/nclimate1514 Using information on current species distributions and dispersal traits, this study forecasts climate-driven range dynamics of plant species across the European Alps. Simulations predict moderate range contractions over the twenty-first century; however, more severe effects of climate warming on mountain plant diversity are expected in the longer term. Full Text | PDF Coral resilience to ocean acidification and global warming through pH up-regulation pp623 - 627 Malcolm McCulloch, Jim Falter, Julie Trotter and Paolo Montagna doi:10.1038/nclimate1473 This study provides a quantitative approach that predicts the response of coral calcification to the combined effects of ocean acidification and global warming. The analysis suggests that warm-water aragonitic corals are more resilient to climate change than previously thought, whereas marine organisms that precipitate calcitic skeletons are particularly vulnerable. Full Text | PDF Article Top Transfer payments in global climate policy pp628 - 633 Florian Landis and Thomas Bernauer doi:10.1038/nclimate1548 An international agreement on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions requires large financial flows from richer to poorer countries. However, the amount and justification for such transfers is still contested. Now research has developed an argument for transfer payments by estimating regional carbon prices versus a global price, and found that in the case of a global carbon price of US$35 per tonne of carbon dioxide, a flow of US$15–48 billion per year would be needed. Full Text | PDF Addendum Top Promoting pro-environmental action in climate change deniers p603 Paul G. Bain, Matthew J. Hornsey, Renata Bongiorno and Carla Jeffries doi:10.1038/nclimate1636 Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Paul G. Bain et al. Beyond Boundaries Top Sharing knowledge with Google Earth p634 doi:10.1038/nclimate1641 Marine biologist Laura Stocker led experts in economics, policy and urban and regional planning to develop a participatory approach to climate adaptation and sustainability at Rottnest Island, Australia. Full Text | PDF Advertisement Feel like your paper is lost in a sea of submissions? 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