Articles

The possibility of a huge oil spill off the coast of Yemen, already in crisis, is increasingly likely. This study projects the likely spill extent and impacts to public health, food, water and air.

Delaying climate mitigation requires large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) in the second half of this century, with possible adverse effects. Under scenarios with no dependence on CDR technologies, this study examines the short- and long-term implications of climate mitigation for land-use and food systems.

Growing demand for food is confronting constraints to its sustainable production. This study finds that intercropping increases grain yields and their stability and that yield benefits increase over time.

Proper management to mitigate and avoid algal blooms in drinking water is dependent on expertise. This study surveyed water managers across the United States to assess how knowledge is formed and disseminated, or how it is not.

Static maps are key tools for assessing ecosystem services. This study shows that hotspots of three boreal-forest services—wood production, bilberry production and topsoil carbon storage—can vary widely over just ten years, suggesting the value of dynamic tools to manage dynamic landscapes.

A mapping study covering over 50 years finds that landslide risk is much higher in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, due to more recent deforestation and more people living in more susceptible areas, than in similar landscapes in neighbouring countries.

Despite concern among racially minoritized groups about environmental impacts within their communities, students of colour remain underrepresented in environmental science degree programmes in the United States and Europe. This study examines the experiences of students of colour to illuminate pathways to racial equity in the pursuit of sustainability.

A quantification of PM_2.5 pollution finds that mortality risk lies disproportionately within low-income households, and that addressing their indoor air pollution sources can avert more absolute deaths, yet wealthier individuals are more responsible for the emissions.

A longitudinal cohort study shows a positive effect of exposure to woodland in urban areas on cognitive development and emotional and behavioural well-being in children, but no effect of blue space or grassland.

Urea is one the most-used synthetic nitrogen fertilizers that have been key to feeding a growing population. However, its production is energy intensive. Here, the authors show an electrocatalytic approach that allows for selective urea synthesis from nitrate and carbon dioxide at ambient conditions.

Eco-friendly processing of plastics could leverage the advantages of plastics while maximizing their environmental sustainability. Here the authors show a cellulose cinnamate polymer that could be repeatedly programmed into various 2D or 3D stable shapes through a sustainable hydrosetting process.

A choice experiment shows that perceived benefits of vehicle ownership, including non-use values such as schedule flexibility and status in addition to the transport value, are on average larger than their private costs.

Riverine systems help transfer mismanaged waste into the ocean, but riverine litter data are scarce. Using a database of riverine floating macrolitter across Europe, this study estimates that 307–925 million litter items—82% of which is plastic—are transferred annually from Europe into the ocean.

Data on marine litter are scattered. Harmonizing worldwide aquatic litter inventories, this study finds global litter dominated by plastics from take-out food, followed by fishing, with litter being trapped in nearshore areas and land-sourced plastic reaching the open ocean mostly as small fragments.

Deforestation is often driven by land conversion for growing commodity crops. This study finds that, between 2000 and 2019, most soybean expansion in South America was on pastures converted originally for cattle production, especially in the Brazilian Amazon. More soy-driven deforestation occurred in the Brazilian Cerrado.

An analysis of the German bioeconomy between 2000 and 2015 finds that its environmental footprints are dominated by animal-based food consumption, and agricultural land use for consumption abroad is double the domestic one.

The authors show how untreated wastewater laced with microplastics and raw sewage is routinely discharged into UK river flows that are too low to disperse the microplastics downstream. This discharge creates acute microplastic contamination of river beds that threatens biodiversity and the quality of riverine habitats.

While the food–energy–water nexus has become a focal point for inter- and cross-disciplinary studies in recent years, this analysis of rural communities contextualizes how effective the nexus is for describing and studying interactions.

In-stream turbines could be a viable alternative to storage-based large hydropower projects. This study finds that about two-thirds of the planned hydropower generation in the Brazilian Amazon basin could be harnessed using in-stream turbines.

Freshwater salinization syndrome is an emerging threat to freshwater globally. Here the authors quantify the contribution of indirect potable reuse to sodium pollution and suggest a variety of behavioural and technological interventions to address this growing environmental problem.