Cascading impacts of climate change on child survival and health in Africa
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Climate change threatens crop diversity at low latitudes
Climate change alters the climatic suitability of croplands, likely shifting the spatial distribution and diversity of global food crop production. Analyses of future potential food crop diversity have been limited to a small number of crops. Here we project geographical shifts in the climatic niches of 30 major food crops under 1.5–4 °C global warming and assess their impact on current crop production and potential food crop diversity across global croplands. We found that in low-latitude regions, 10–31% of current production would shift outside the climatic niche even under 2 °C global warming, increasing to 20–48% under 3 °C warming. Concurrently, potential food crop diversity would decline on 52% (+2 °C) and 56% (+3 °C) of global cropland. However, potential diversity would increase in mid to high latitudes, offering opportunities for climate change adaptation. These results highlight substantial latitudinal differences in the adaptation potential and vulnerability of the global food system under global warming.
Event triggers and opinion leaders shape climate change discourse on Weibo
Understanding how real-world events and opinion leaders shape climate change discussions is vital for improving communication and policy formulation to meet global carbon mitigation goals. This study analyzed 5.3 million original posts from Weibo (2012–2022), China’s largest social media platform, to examine climate change discourse. We found five event types triggering 48 discussion peaks, including online activities, international conferences, extreme weather, domestic policies, and international news. Posts generally conveyed positive attitudes, though sentiment decreased during haze pollution and the COVID-19 pandemic. Network analysis revealed seven opinion leader groups with distinct strategies: official media and institutions emphasized political will, global initiatives, and socio-economic implications, while universities and grassroots individuals focused on scientific reality and personal actions. Celebrities and unofficial accounts often highlighted geopolitical topics, especially China-US relations. We suggest reducing fragmented echo chambers and fostering personal connections through digital media platforms to enhance public awareness.
Decarbonizing urban residential communities with green hydrogen systems
Community green hydrogen systems, typically consisting of rooftop photovoltaic panels paired with hybrid hydrogen-battery storage, offer urban environments with improved access to clean, on-site energy. However, economically viable pathways for deploying hydrogen storage within urban communities remain unclear. Here we develop a bottom-up energy model linking climate, human behavior and community characteristics to assess the impacts of pathways for deploying community green hydrogen systems in North America from 2030 to 2050. We show that for the same community conditions, the cost difference between the best and worst pathways can be as high as 60%. In particular, the household centralized option emerges as the preferred pathway for most communities. Furthermore, enhancing energy storage demands within these deployment pathways can reduce system design costs up to fourfold. To achieve cost-effective urban decarbonization, the study underscores the critical role of selecting the right deployment pathway and prioritizing the integration of increased energy storage in pathway designs.
Feature of cascading rupture frequently observed in Northern California
Understanding if earthquakes of different sizes start in the same way and whether the growth process of the rupture of large earthquakes is predictable are fundamental questions in earthquake physics. Recent studies indicate the onsets of seismic waves from small and large earthquakes exhibit similar characteristics, suggesting that an earthquake’s onset does not dictate its final size. However, the factors controlling this process remain unclear. A systematic comparison of 24 years of high-sensitivity seismograph records using cross-correlation for ~75,000 events reveals 125 extremely similar and 1939 similar pairs of co-located large and small earthquakes. An extremely high similarity is observed for pairs of earthquakes occurring on simple faults (44 of 55 large events), whereas large earthquakes occurring on complex faults have a low probability of cascading rupture. Estimating the probability of cascading rupture based primarily on fault geometry can improve the predictability of future earthquakes with a more quantitative size estimation.
Are associations of adulthood overweight and obesity with all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, and obesity-related cancer modified by comparative body weight at age 10 years in the UK Biobank study?
Adults living with overweight or obesity do not represent a single homogenous group in terms of mortality and disease risks. The aim of our study was to evaluate how the associations of adulthood overweight and obesity with mortality and incident disease are modified by (i.e., differ according to) self-reported childhood body weight categories.
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