Highest ocean heat in four centuries places Great Barrier Reef in danger.

Mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in Australia between 2016 and 2024 was driven by high sea surface temperatures (SST). The likelihood of temperature-induced bleaching is a key determinant for the future threat status of the GBR, but the long-term context of recent temperatures in the region is unclear. Here we show that the January-March Coral Sea heat extremes in 2024, 2017 and 2020 (in order of descending mean SST anomalies) were the warmest in 400 years, exceeding the 95th-percentile uncertainty limit of our reconstructed pre-1900 maximum.

The Political Economy of Health Co-Benefits: Embedding Health in the Climate Change Agenda.

A complex, whole-of-economy issue such as climate change demands an interdisciplinary, multi-sectoral response. However, evidence suggests that human health has remained elusive in its influence on the development of ambitious climate change mitigation policies for many national governments, despite a recognition that the combustion of fossil fuels results in pervasive short- and long-term health consequences. We use insights from literature on the political economy of health and climate change, the science–policy interface and power in policy-making, to identify additional barriers to the meaningful incorporation of health co-benefits into climate change mitigation policy development.

Early emergence in a butterfly causally linked to anthropogenic warming.

There is strong correlative evidence that human-induced climate warming is contributing to changes in the timing of natural events. Firm attribution, however, requires cause-and-effect links between observed climate change and altered phenology, together with statistical confidence that observed regional climate change is anthropogenic. We provide evidence for phenological shifts in the butterfly Heteronympha merope in response to regional warming in the southeast Australian city of Melbourne.

Climate change and primary health care.

Background: Climate change and rising average global temperatures threaten to disrupt the physical, biological and ecological life support systems on which human health depends.

Objective: This article overviews the evidence for human induced climate change, the predicted health impacts, and the role of primary health care professionals in managing these impacts.

Discussion: Climate change has substantial potential health effects.

Solar UV forecasts: a randomized trial assessing their impact on adults' sun-protection behavior.

This study examined the effectiveness of solar UV forecasts and supporting communications in assisting adults to protect themselves from excessive weekend sun exposure. The study was conducted in Australia, where 557 adult participants with workplace e-mail and Internet access were randomly allocated to one of three weather forecast conditions: standard forecast (no UV), standard forecast + UV, standard forecast + UV + sun-protection messages. From late spring through summer and early autumn, they were e-mailed weekend weather forecasts late in the working week.

Detection of a human influence on North American climate.

Several indices of large-scale patterns of surface temperature variation were used to investigate climate change in North America over the 20th century. The observed variability of these indices was simulated well by a number of climate models. Comparison of index trends in observations and model simulations shows that North American temperature changes from 1950 to 1999 were unlikely to be due to natural climate variation alone.

Atmospheric science. Ozone and climate change.

Over the past 40 years, Southern Hemisphere circumpolar westerly winds have strengthened. In his Perspective, Karoly highlights the modeling study by Gillett and Thompson, who show that these observed Southern Hemisphere climate changes in spring and summer can be explained as a response to stratospheric ozone depletion over Antarctica. The observed strengthening of the circumpolar westerlies in winter is less likely to be the response to springtime Antarctic ozone depletion, but may be due in part to increasing atmospheric greenhouse gases.