Volume 1 Issue 908, August 2009

Climate change is inherently a social problem — so why have sociologists been so slow to study it? Kerri Smith reports.

Ice has become an unequalled resource for studying the Earth's climatic history. Anna Barnett rounds up several new features on our site that pay tribute to the field of paleoclimatology, from the initial discovery of climatic clues in ice through to current efforts to recover a core that stretches back over a million years.

It's the water-dependent modern world that needs saving, not Botswana's besieged Kalahari Bushmen.

Contention can be an opportunity to connect, rather than an obstacle to engaging with climate change.

Glaciologist Lonnie Thompson has spent more time above 20,000 feet than any other human being. In collecting a vast library of ice samples from mountain peaks, he has developed a unique view of past and present-day climate change. Anna Barnett caught up with him at the American Geophysical Union's Chapman Conference on Abrupt Climate Change, held 15–19 June at Thompson's own Ohio State University.