In recent years, South Korea has experienced a notable escalation in the intensity and frequency of summer heat. To quantitatively gauge the impact of global warming on Korean summers, this study employs the Time of Emergence (TOE) method, assessing when the effects of global warming surpass natural climate variability. Determining a precise regional TOE is challenging due to disparities between modeled climates and observations. For peak summer seasons (July and August), TOE estimates range from the 2010s to the early 2030s in Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP) 5-8.5, suggesting an imminent or already reached TOE. However, for the same scenario, different methodologies and datasets project the TOE to the late 21st century, suggesting the existence of uncertainty in the TOE. One reason for this uncertainty is the discrepancies identified between climate models and observations, which suggest that climate models could delay the TOE beyond the present time. Furthermore, from 1959 to 2014, global warming accounts for less than 10% of the observed temperature. Despite this, the strengthening of global warming signals is confirmed, leading to the expectation of more extreme events than those seen in the 2018 heat wave. This raises questions about current estimates of TOE and emphasizes the need for robust climate modeling to inform effective climate action.

This study aims to explore how climate change education and sensemaking can lead to climate engagement and adaptive behavior at the grassroots level. The research focuses on five rural communities in Ghana and seeks to answer three key questions related to how people understand and respond to climate change issues. One strength of the study is the use of sensemaking as an organizing framework, which allows for a nuanced understanding of how people at the grassroots level make sense of complex environmental issues like climate change. The study findings suggest that sensemaking was a critical factor in how people noticed and made meaning of the climate crisis, and that deliberative tools like storytelling, conversation, and listening were important tools for facilitating this process. We also found that climate educators needed to address existing misconceptions before framing climate change issues in terms of science and impact on livelihoods. Linking climate change to rural livelihoods resonated more with people than science, and a strategy of guiding communities to recognize the need for adaptive behavior through individual and collective sensemaking was important. The emphasis on linking climate change to rural livelihoods rather than science is an important finding, as it suggests that approaches that emphasize the impact of climate change on local communities and their ability to adapt may be more effective than purely scientific arguments.

The state of Rhode Island is responding appropriately to the climate crisis by enacting “the Resilient Rhode Island Act of 2014” and then preparing the revised “2021 Act on Climate.” Accordingly, Rhode Island strives to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050 by establishing and evaluating a climate change response plan and setting science-based climate goals through the Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council through consultation with the Advisory Board and the Science and Technical Advisory Board. Additionally, Rhode Island is committed to establishing industry support strategies to respond to climate change, considering future generations, including children, in the impacts of climate change, utilizing the knowledge of private experts at universities, and promoting public education on climate change response. However, matters that need to be supplemented and improved in the implementation of Rhode Island’s climate change-related legal policies include the fair and transparent selection of advisors from an organizational perspective and the securing of dedicated personnel and budget for practical work.

This study investigates the attribution of climate change to trends in river discharge during six decades from 1955 until 2014 in 12 selected river catchments across six Central Asian countries located upstream of the main rivers. For this purpose, the semi-distributed eco-hydrological model SWIM (Soil and Water Integrated Model) was firstly calibrated and validated for all study catchments. Attributing climate change to streamflow simulation trends was forced by factual (reanalysis) and counterfactual climate data (assuming the absence of anthropogenic influence) proposed in the framework of the ISIMIP (Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project) or ESM without anthropogenic forcing that were firstly tested and then compared. The trend analysis was performed for three variables: mean annual discharge and high flow (Q5) and low flow (Q95) indices. The results show that trends in the annual and seasonal discharge could be attributed to climate change for some of the studied catchments. In the three northern catchments (Derkul, Shagan, and Tobol), there are positive trends, and in two catchments (Sarysu and Kafirnigan), there are negative streamflow trends under the factual climate, which could be attributed to climate change. Also, our analysis shows that the average level of discharge in Murghab has increased during the historical study period due to climate change, despite the overall decreasing trend during this period. In addition, the study reveals a clear signal of shifting spring streamflow peaks in all catchments across the study area.