Volume 1 Issue 2, February 2018

Nature Sustainability aims to cover a wide range of topics — a goal that will take a number of journal issues to accomplish.

The collapse of the Maya is a topic of perpetual fascination. Now, a study modelling the development of their civilization finds that collapse was driven by land degradation, rather than precipitation change.

Albatross populations of South Georgia have been declining over the past four decades. Bird mortality in fishing gear and increased environmental variability due to climate change prevent albatrosses from recovering and mean that conservation action is needed.

Achieving a high quality of life within the biophysical limits of the planet is a significant challenge. This study quantifies the resource use associated with meeting basic human needs, compares it to downscaled planetary boundaries for over 150 nations and finds that no country meets its citizens’ basic needs sustainably.

Dams in the Mekong Basin are built without considering impacts on river processes. This study shows that with strategic planning in the lower Mekong, 68% of the basin’s hydropower potential could have been developed while trapping 21% of the basin’s sand load.

Energy-saving innovations, such as fabrics with cooling effects, contribute to sustainability. This study reports the large-scale extrusion of uniform and continuous nanoporous polyethylene microfibres with cotton-like softness for wearable fabrics. The fabric can lower human skin temperature by 2.3 °C with over 20% savings on indoor cooling energy.