Research Highlight |
Featured
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Matters Arising |
Aquaculture will continue to depend more on land than sea
- Wenbo Zhang
- , Ben Belton
- & Max Troell
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Article |
Determinants of emissions pathways in the coupled climate–social system
A stylized model of the climate–social system could help to understand policy and emissions futures.
- Frances C. Moore
- , Katherine Lacasse
- & Brian Beckage
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Book Review |
A call for governments to save soil
To ensure food security, the world must stop letting fertile soil wash and blow away.
- Emma Marris
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Correspondence |
Portugal leads with Europe’s largest marine reserve
- Filipe Alves
- , João G. Monteiro
- & João Canning-Clode
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Article |
Air pollution exposure disparities across US population and income groups
Different racial/ethnic populations and income groups are found to have been exposed to different levels of air pollution in the USA during the years 2000 to 2016.
- Abdulrahman Jbaily
- , Xiaodan Zhou
- & Francesca Dominici
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Article |
The effect of rainfall changes on economic production
A global assessment shows that increases in the number of wet days and extreme daily rainfall adversely affect economic growth, particularly in high-income nations and via the services and manufacturing sectors.
- Maximilian Kotz
- , Anders Levermann
- & Leonie Wenz
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Editorial |
Sustainability at the crossroads
A look back at 2021 through the Sustainable Development Goals.
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Editorial |
The UN must get on with appointing its new science board
The decision to appoint a board of advisors is welcome — and urgent, given the twin challenges of COVID and climate change.
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Nature Podcast |
What’s the best diet for people and the planet?
Designing a nutritious and planet-friendly diet, and an AI that guides mathematicians.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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Research Highlight |
Battery-powered trains offer a cost-effective ride to a cleaner world
A battery system could power a train for hundreds of kilometres before needing a charge of renewable energy.
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Article |
Carbon implications of marginal oils from market-derived demand shocks
Here the non-linear relationship is revealed between carbon emissions reductions and oil demand reductions, which depends on the magnitude of demand drop and the global oil market structure.
- Mohammad S. Masnadi
- , Giacomo Benini
- & Adam R. Brandt
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News |
All aboard the climate train! Scientists join activists for COP26 trip
Journey to pivotal climate summit offers a glimpse into the hopes and fears of researchers travelling to the meeting.
- Tosin Thompson
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Article |
A global inventory of photovoltaic solar energy generating units
A global inventory of utility-scale solar photovoltaic generating units, produced by combining remote sensing imagery with machine learning, has identified 68,661 facilities — an increase of over 400% on previously available asset-level data — the majority of which were sited on cropland.
- L. Kruitwagen
- , K. T. Story
- & C. Hepburn
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News & Views |
Machine learning enables global solar-panel detection
An inventory of the world’s solar-panel installations has been produced with the help of machine learning, revealing many more than had previously been recorded. The results will inform efforts to meet global targets for solar-energy use.
- Lynn H. Kaack
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Research Highlight |
A battery that’s not just greener but better
Lithium-ion batteries that incorporate a recycled material outperform those made with a commercial version.
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Article |
Estimating a social cost of carbon for global energy consumption
Using global data, econometrics and climate science to estimate the damages induced by the emission of one ton of carbon dioxide, climate change is projected to increase electricity spending but reduce overall end-use energy expenditure.
- Ashwin Rode
- , Tamma Carleton
- & Jiacan Yuan
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Correspondence |
Recognize 727 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves for biodiversity COP15
- Alicia D. Barraclough
- , Maureen G. Reed
- & Kaera Coetzer
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Article |
Hemispheric black carbon increase after the 13th-century Māori arrival in New Zealand
Antarctic ice-core records and atmospheric transport modelling used here show that the 13th-century rise of Māori culture in New Zealand led to a threefold increase of atmospheric black carbon.
- Joseph R. McConnell
- , Nathan J. Chellman
- & Alberto J. Aristarain
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Nature Index |
Sustainable Development Goals research speaks to city strengths and priorities
Collaboration between coastal communities and sprawling metropolises helps the drive to meet UN targets.
- Bec Crew
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Nature Index |
Tracking 20 leading cities’ Sustainable Development Goals research
Local challenges help to explain why some goals are prioritized over others.
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Nature Index |
Coral conservation strikes a balance
Fiji–Australia collaboration matches community needs with reef protection.
- Clare Watson
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Nature Index |
Pursuit of better batteries underpins China’s lead in energy research
Safe and efficient storage for renewable energy is key to meeting sustainability targets.
- Bec Crew
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Nature Index |
How cities are collaborating to help safeguard oceans
Despite missed deadlines in 2020 for key targets in marine conservation, momentum for these Sustainable Development Goals is growing.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Nature Index |
How Belo Horizonte’s bid to tackle hunger inspired other cities
Commended by the United Nations, the Brazilian city’s crisis response linked all aspects of food security.
- Anita Makri
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Nature Index |
Rising tide of floating plastics spurs surge in research
Strong government policies and research insights are essential to deliver on a pledge to clean up the sea.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Nature Index |
Uneven spread of research leaves poorer cities short of solutions
A concentration of knowledge and funding advances Sustainable Development Goals, but in the global south, it’s a different story.
- Xuemei Bai
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Nature Index |
New York bids to level the playing field in a metropolis of inequality
Plans for a more equitable city are supported by huge regional research firepower.
- Anita Makri
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Editorial |
Harness the world’s aquatic ‘blue’ food systems to help end hunger
Aquatic foods have been neglected by researchers and policymakers. It’s time to recognize them.
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Nature Podcast |
How to help feed the world with 'Blue Foods'
How aquatic foods could help tackle world hunger, and how Australian wildfires spurred phytoplankton growth in the Southern Ocean.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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Article |
Aquatic foods to nourish nations
Data on the nutrient content of almost 3,000 aquatic animal-source foods is combined with a food-systems model to show that an increase in aquatic-food production could reduce the inadequate intake of most nutrients.
- Christopher D. Golden
- , J. Zachary Koehn
- & Shakuntala H. Thilsted
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Article |
Environmental performance of blue foods
A range of environmental stressors are estimated for farmed and wild capture blue foods, including bivalves, seaweed, crustaceans and finfish, with the potential to inform more sustainable diets.
- Jessica A. Gephart
- , Patrik J. G. Henriksson
- & Max Troell
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Comment |
Food systems: seven priorities to end hunger and protect the planet
Here’s how the United Nations should harness science and technology to improve nutrition and safeguard the environment.
- Joachim von Braun
- , Kaosar Afsana
- & Mohamed Hassan
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Research Highlight |
Can Chinese diners embrace potatoes? The answer could affect Earth’s climate
A switch to spuds in a country where rice is prominent could cut greenhouse-gas emissions.
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Correspondence |
Declare how you are limiting your environmental impact
- Paul Grogan
- , Kate M. Buckeridge
- & Anders Priemé
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Correspondence |
Andes foothills protected by carbon-offset fund
- Evert Thomas
- , Marleni Ramirez
- & Manuel Glave
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Editorial |
Vulnerable nations lead by example on Sustainable Development Goals research
A United Nations study of world science is a wake-up call that richer countries must also shift science towards the SDGs.
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Research Highlight |
China wastes almost 30% of its food
Out-of-home dining accounts for some of the nation’s wasted food, but much more is lost during food storage and processing.
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Correspondence |
Italy: Forest harvesting is the opposite of green growth
- Roberto Cazzolla Gatti
- , Gianluca Piovesan
- & Alessandro Chiarucci
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Editorial |
Does the fight against hunger need its own IPCC?
Any plan to create an intergovernmental science panel on food science and policy must protect its independence.
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Nature Podcast |
Food shocks and how to avoid them
Addressing the problem of sudden food scarcity in US cities, and the up-and-coming field of computational social science.
- Shamini Bundell
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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Article |
Supply chain diversity buffers cities against food shocks
An intensity−duration−frequency model linking food shock risk to supply chain diversity in the USA finds that boosting a city’s food supply chain diversity increases the resistance of a city to food shocks of mild to moderate severity.
- Michael Gomez
- , Alfonso Mejia
- & Richard R. Rushforth
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Comment |
Five ways to ensure flood-risk research helps the most vulnerable
Studies are skewed towards resilient places and people: improve data, metrics, inclusion and more.
- Miyuki Hino
- & Earthea Nance
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Comment |
Nature-based solutions can help cool the planet — if we act now
Analysis suggests that to limit global temperature rise, we must slash emissions and invest now to protect, manage and restore ecosystems and land for the future.
- Cécile A. J. Girardin
- , Stuart Jenkins
- & Yadvinder Malhi
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Article |
Equity is more important for the social cost of methane than climate uncertainty
Accounting for equity influences the social cost of methane more than climate model uncertainty does and produces results that differ by over an order of magnitude between low- and high-income regions.
- Frank C. Errickson
- , Klaus Keller
- & David Anthoff
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Article |
Unveiling African rainforest composition and vulnerability to global change
A large dataset of 6 million trees from 193 taxa is used to map the floristic and functional composition of central African forests and predict their vulnerability to climate change.
- Maxime Réjou-Méchain
- , Frédéric Mortier
- & Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury
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Nature Podcast |
The sanitation crisis making rural America ill
The lack of adequate sanitation in parts of the rural US, and physicists reassess muons’ magnetism.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
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Editorial |
The United States can help the IMF to rethink how it lends
The funding powerhouse should encourage the International Monetary Fund to prioritize research into sustainable development.