Environmental social sciences articles within Nature Geoscience

Featured

  • Editorial |

    Air pollution is a leading cause of death globally. Efforts to clean the air will not only save lives but contribute to addressing broader environmental and socioeconomic challenges.

  • Comment |

    The rapid spread of solar power plants onto cropland is having increasingly detrimental impacts. Targeted policy and technological solutions are urgently needed to resolve the tension between renewable energy and food production.

    • Ning Zhang
    • , Huabo Duan
    •  & Xuemei Bai

  • Comment |

    The recent emergence of a new economic model that is focused on the pursuit of human and ecological wellbeing — the wellbeing economy — offers a fresh framework for geology to contribute to society. The challenge will be to extend the social purpose of geology beyond material and financial goals to the ultimate ends of sustainability through delivering long-term wellbeing for all.

    • Iain Stewart

  • Editorial |

    Meeting climate targets will require considerable carbon dioxide removal in addition to emission cuts. To achieve this sustainably, a range of methods are needed to avoid adverse effects and match co-benefits with local needs.

  • Article |

    Emission controls avoided some 870,000 deaths in China between 2002 and 2017 but further air quality improvements need energy-climate policies and changed economic structure, according to index decomposition analysis and chemical transport models.

    • Guannan Geng
    • , Yixuan Zheng
    •  & Steven J. Davis

  • Editorial |

    Wetlands provide a wealth of societal and climatic benefits. Balanced conservation strategies are needed to ensure their protection in the twenty-first century and beyond.

  • Comment |

    Underground smouldering fires resurfaced early in 2020, contributing to the unprecedented wildfires that tore through the Arctic this spring and summer. An international effort is needed to manage a changing fire regime in the vulnerable Arctic.

    • Jessica L. McCarty
    • , Thomas E. L. Smith
    •  & Merritt R. Turetsky

  • Comment |

    It is commonly thought that old groundwater cannot be pumped sustainably, and that recently recharged groundwater is inherently sustainable. We argue that both old and young groundwaters can be used in physically sustainable or unsustainable ways.

    • Grant Ferguson
    • , Mark O. Cuthbert
    •  & Jennifer C. McIntosh

  • Article |

    Tropical deforestation rates are linked to large-scale land investments, according to georeferenced land deal records and remote sensing of forest loss over the past two decades.

    • Kyle Frankel Davis
    • , Heejin Irene Koo
    •  & Mokganedi Tatlhego

  • Editorial |

    Mineral extraction will play an important role in climate change mitigation and green technologies. But ensuring that the net effect of mining is beneficial requires careful monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts.

  • Comment |

    Scientists and policymakers must acknowledge that carbon dioxide removal can be small in scale and still be relevant for climate policy, that it will primarily emerge ‘bottom up’, and that different methods have different governance needs.

    • Rob Bellamy
    •  & Oliver Geden

  • Perspective |

    Recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer above Antarctica has not been straightforward, as a result of human activities and climate change. The recovery process might be delayed by up to decades if further mitigation actions are not taken.

    • Xuekun Fang
    • , John A. Pyle
    •  & Ronald G. Prinn

  • News & Views |

    Nitrogen deposition in China has stabilized over the past decade, thanks to efficient regulation of fertilizer use, suggests an analysis of wet and dry deposition.

    • Maria Kanakidou

  • Review Article |

    Stressors such as large-scale damming, hydrological change, pollution, the introduction of non-native species and sediment mining are challenging the integrity and future of large rivers, according to a synthesis of the literature on the 32 biggest rivers.

    • Jim Best

  • Editorial |

    Earth’s resources may not be running out, but the planet’s capacity to cope with the resulting waste products is limited. Resource geology can no longer be the preserve of the economic, mining or petroleum geologist; sustainably providing for the world’s population requires a broader skillset.

  • News & Views |

    If emissions continue at the present-day rate, about 22 years are left until global mean warming reaches the 1.5 °C Paris Agreement target, suggests a new metric based on the observed level and rate of anthropogenic warming.

    • Katarzyna B. Tokarska

  • Comment |

    The remaining carbon budget consistent with limiting warming to 1.5 °C allows 20 more years of current emissions according to one study, but is already exhausted according to another. Both are defensible. We need to move on from a unique carbon budget, and face the nuances.

    • Glen P. Peters

  • Comment |

    Upward estimates for carbon budgets are unlikely to lead to action-focused climate policy. Climate researchers need to understand processes and incentives in policymaking and politics to communicate effectively.

    • Oliver Geden

  • Review Article |

    Indicators of environmental and social footprints of international trade must inform assessments of progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, suggests a synthesis of studies on the geospatial separation of consumption and production.

    • Thomas Wiedmann
    •  & Manfred Lenzen

  • News & Views |

    West African farmers adjust tree cover to realize the co-benefits of agroforestry, according to analyses of remote sensing data.

    • Niall P. Hanan

  • Comment |

    Temperature overshoot scenarios that make the 1.5 °C climate target feasible could turn into sources of political flexibility. Climate scientists must provide clear constraints on overshoot magnitude, duration and timing, to ensure accountability.

    • Oliver Geden
    •  & Andreas Löschel

  • Article |

    The current distribution of crops around the world neither attains maximum production nor minimum water use, according to a crop water model and yield data. An optimized crop distribution could feed an additional 825 million people and substantially reduce water use.

    • Kyle Frankel Davis
    • , Maria Cristina Rulli
    •  & Paolo D’Odorico

  • Commentary |

    Quality requirements for water differ by intended use. Sustainable management of water resources for different uses will not only need to account for demand in water quantity, but also for water temperature and salinity, nutrient levels and other pollutants.

    • Michelle T.H. van Vliet
    • , Martina Flörke
    •  & Yoshihide Wada

  • Perspective |

    Enhanced protection is needed for freshwater bodies in the United States — in particular impermanent streams and wetlands outside floodplains — according to an assessment of their value and vulnerability.

    • Irena F. Creed
    • , Charles R. Lane
    •  & Lora Smith

  • Editorial |

    The emerging field of geohealth links human well-being and ecosystem health. A deeper understanding of these linkages can help society mitigate the health costs of economic growth before they become crises.

  • Editorial |

    Air pollution in large cities remains a persistent public health problem. Adapting air quality forecasts for use by decision makers could help mitigate severe pollution events.

  • News & Views |

    Groundwater resources are directly affected by climate variability via precipitation, evapotranspiration and recharge. Analyses of US and India trends reveal that climate-induced pumping indirectly influences groundwater depletion as well.

    • Jason J. Gurdak

  • Editorial |

    The clock is ticking for climate change mitigation. Geoengineering is gaining ground as an option, but it needs to be examined at a large scale to determine its effectiveness and associated risks.

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