BY, Oct. 19 -- Lars Heikensten, Marcia McNutt, & Johan Rockstrom

The announcement of this year's Nobel Prize laureates should remind us of the many contributions basic science has made to contemporary life. With Covid-19 ravaging much of humanity, and the world anxiously awaiting a breakthrough that can end the pandemic, we can no longer take science for granted. And the global science community, for its part, has risen to the occasion in unprecedented ways, not only to develop vaccines, therapies, and diagnostics, but also to improve our understanding of the virus and the best strategies to protect ourselves.

But the world is also afflicted by other crises that must not be ignored. Last month was the warmest September ever recorded. Te...