Climate protestors clash with police outside Tesla’s German gigafactory

Climate protestors clash with police outside Tesla’s German gigafactory

Climate protestors in Germany broke through police barricades on Friday, amid clashes between activists and law enforcement. The protestors either made it onto (according to protestors) or near (according to local police) the grounds of a Tesla gigafactory in Grünheide, Germany, near Berlin. It’s part of a planned five-day demonstration ahead of a local government … Read more

NATO is boosting AI and climate research as scientific diplomacy remains on ice

NATO is boosting AI and climate research as scientific diplomacy remains on ice

A NATO research vessel conducting studies of marine mammals in the Mediterranean Sea (pictured in 2009).Credit: U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Kristen Allen via Mil image/Alamy Science has been essential to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the political and military alliance founded 75 years ago this month. The 32-country alliance is admitting more … Read more

European ruling linking climate change to human rights could be a game changer — here’s how

European ruling linking climate change to human rights could be a game changer — here’s how

On 9 April, the European Court of Human Rights delivered a groundbreaking ruling: states are obliged to protect their citizens from the threats and harms of climate change. And in that regard, judges said, Switzerland’s climate action has been inadequate (see go.nature.com/4azjhvd). This marks the first time that an international human-rights court has linked protection … Read more

Do climate lawsuits lead to action? Researchers assess their impact

Do climate lawsuits lead to action? Researchers assess their impact

Climate litigation is in the spotlight again after a landmark decision last week. The top European human-rights court deemed that the Swiss government was violating its citizens’ human rights through its lack of climate action. The case, brought by more than 2,000 older women, is one of more than 2,300 climate lawsuits that have been … Read more

What happens when climate change and the mental-health crisis collide?

What happens when climate change and the mental-health crisis collide?

Climate change can cause anxiety — researchers need to work out when that requires specialist help.Credit: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty Nearly one billion people worldwide — including one in seven teenagers — have a mental disorder. A growing body of research suggests that climate change is worsening people’s mental health and emotional well-being. Acute heatwaves, droughts, floods … Read more

scientists wake up to the mental-health toll of climate change

scientists wake up to the mental-health toll of climate change

Every year for six years, Laureen Wamaitha hoped that her fields in Kenya would flourish. Every year, she’d see drought wither the crops and then floods wash them away. The cycle of optimism and loss left her constantly anxious, and she blamed climate change. “You get to a situation where you have panic attacks because … Read more

Climate velocities and species tracking in global mountain regions

Climate velocities and species tracking in global mountain regions

Mountainous regions represent 25% of Earth’s land surface and are rich in biodiversity, owing in part to their steep climatic gradients and complex topography1,2. The assumption that mountain species are responding faster to anthropogenic climate change through rapid upward range shifts leading to potential mountaintop extinctions has attracted extensive research3,4,7,8,9. Whether species are closely tracking … Read more

Climate change has slowed Earth’s rotation — and could affect how we keep time

Climate change has slowed Earth’s rotation — and could affect how we keep time

Climate change is starting to alter how humans keep time. An analysis1 published in Nature on 27 March has predicted that melting ice caps are slowing Earth’s rotation to such an extent that the next leap second — the mechanism used since 1972 to reconcile official time from atomic clocks with that based on Earth’s … Read more