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Carceral facilities have experienced an increase in days with dangerous heat conditions over the past 40 years, particularly at state facilities in the southern and southwestern United States. Indoor temperature regulation is necessary to protect the health of vulnerable incarcerated populations.
An increasingly warm climate can lead to more intense, frequent and longer periods of hazardous heat, increasing the risk of heat-related health concerns. This study assesses whether incarcerated people in the United States are potentially disproportionately exposed to such hazardous heat conditions.
Landfills are a major methane emitter, but the current bottom-up inventories used for emissions accounting are poorly constrained and show strong biases. Improved emissions estimates show that across the globe, methane emissions from individual landfills have been underestimated by up to 200%.
Measuring the heath of urban greenery is costly but important. This Review presents the advantages and trade-offs of technology-supported tools to measure the health of urban greenery and highlights the importance of high-resolution urban greenery data to support cities in achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
Global food systems, a major driver of biodiversity loss, are exposed to multiple stressors, including geopolitical shocks like wars. A study now shows the impacts of the Russia–Ukraine conflict on the global food market, and the consequences in terms of cropland expansion and biodiversity harm.
The impacts of the war in Ukraine on global food systems have multiple sustainability implications that are yet to be examined. This study simulates the potential war-induced cropland expansion worldwide and presents a biodiversity impact assessment, showing the most affected countries.
Most glass fibre-reinforced plastics (GFRPs) waste currently ends up in either landfills or incineration facilities, resulting in adverse environmental impacts and waste of resources. Now, a flash Joule heating technology can achieve rapid and effective upcycling of GFRPs waste into SiC, a material that has a wide range of applications.
Sustainable end-of-life management strategies for fibre-reinforced plastics are urgently needed from a sustainability perspective. Here the authors develop a solvent-free flash upcycling method, enabling ultrafast and efficient upcycling of fibre-reinforced plastics to fulfil such a need.
Urea is an essential fertilizer; however, its production is carbon and energy intensive. This work shows a pulsed co-electrolysis strategy that turns carbon dioxide and nitrate to urea directly utilising a molecular electrocatalyst.
Rechargeable zinc–air batteries are a sustainable energy storage system, but their performance is not yet competitive. Now a mesoporous single-atom catalyst steers the sluggish four-electron oxygen reduction reaction pathway to a faster two-electron process and enables highly reversible zinc–air batteries.
Using decades of high-resolution mapping, this study tracks the land area of the wildland–urban interface that is exposed to fire risk, finding increases in both area and risk in multiple locations globally.
To realize sustainability transitions, there is a need for broad societal support. A study now shows that images can be influential in building that support, even in the case of policy decisions to invest in greener urban transportation, which more sceptical citizens would typically not endorse.
Myriad structures, from purpose-built concrete modules to decommissioned petroleum platforms, have been deployed in US waters to create artificial reefs. Assessing their spatial coverage would help marine spatial planning but the task is challenging. Now a study does that and reveals some important ecological insights.
Whether on a hike, in a remote disaster zone or in your own home, access to clean water is critical. Filtration of freshwater to remove ultrafine particles like micro/nanoplastics, pathogens or other toxic components is unfortunately usually quite expensive, unportable and environmentally unfriendly.
Picturing positive changes resulting from greener transport policies can be more effective than trying to shift climate beliefs, often related to party affiliations. A study shows how AI pictures of future car-free cities enhanced Americans’ willingness to support more sustainable transport policies.
Oxygen electrocatalysis is key for energy conversion and storage technologies such as fuel cells and water electrolysers. However, the measurement of the performance of electrocatalysts is not standardized. This Comment addresses emerging pitfalls in performance evaluation and discusses best practices for oxygen electrocatalysis.
International policy is concerned about palm oil-induced deforestation, whereas Indonesia’s government and industry representatives emphasize the role that palm oil plays in support of the livelihoods of millions of smallholder local farmers. This Perspective discusses how smallholders can still be supported without incurring further forest loss.
Understanding the forces behind the successful governance of common-pool resources is crucial to sustainable development. This study reveals the importance of establishing and enforcing ‘access rights’ in the face of intergroup conflicts over resources to facilitate the evolution of sustainable ‘use rights’.
