Volume 5 Issue 8, August 2022

Mounting evidence of the effect of pollution on human health is shaping the field of sustainability in clinical care. Jodi Sherman, MD and associate professor at the Yale School of Medicine and Yale School of Public Health, explains that healthcare pollution harms public health, is underappreciated and escapes oversight of health services.

Always aspiring for more is a side of human nature that does not accord well with sustainable resource use. However, recent results show that this facet of human nature may not be as typical as previously assumed, potentially opening up a more sustainable and just future for humanity.

In China, rapid growth is raising concerns about the impacts of industrial pollution on drinking water and health. A recent study identifies concentrations of disinfection byproducts as a possible culprit in high levels of bladder cancer.

The concentration of disinfection byproducts in tap water varies considerably across China and is statistically related to bladder cancer incidence rates. Anthropogenic factors are shown to have a notable influence on water quality. Countries and regions experiencing rapid socioeconomic development should consider adopting solutions to increase the safety of drinking water.

The link between oxygen redox and structural disorder in lithium-rich layered electrodes has been challenging to unravel. A theoretical framework for the link between structural disorder, subsequent bond rearrangements and redox chemistry has been proposed, providing guidance for the materials engineering of high-capacity electrodes.

Despite interventions, the widespread decline in plant biodiversity continues. Urban conservation gardening—that is, the cultivation of declining native plant species in public and private green spaces—can offer a viable approach to plant conservation, complementing traditional measures.

This article reviews the past decade of literature reporting the application of resilience science in sustainable development practice. Although innovative complexity-oriented practices have emerged, the article shows that dominant applications diverge substantially from the science.

Accurate models of pro-environmental behaviour can inform interventions to foster sustainability. This study estimates the extent to which psychological factors like attitudes and personal norms explain greenhouse gas emissions from clothing purchasing across four countries.

If people had truly unlimited wants as assumed in economics, pursuing sustainability would be a real challenge. This study provides evidence that most people’s wants are moderate rather than unlimited, suggesting that policies limiting wealth in pursuit of sustainability could be acceptable to many.

Modelling studies suggest that large-scale win–win solutions are available, but practitioners confronted with real-world complexity are sceptical. This study shows that increasing the number of objectives, the number of stakeholders or the number of constraints decreases the availability of win–win outcomes.

Changes in agricultural practices have led to the expansion of tree plantations across the tropics, but this expansion is poorly characterized. Nearly 7 million unique patches of observed tree cover gain are classified through satellite imagery to report on tropical tree plantation expansion between 2000 and 2012.

The importance of ensuring access to clean drinking water is manifested in UN Sustainable Development Goals. Here, a national-level assessment of tap-water safety shows spatial variations across China. The disparity is correlated with natural and anthropogenic factors and linked to public health-risk rates.

Vehicles are responsible for a large share of urban air pollution, but emissions estimates omit the full driving cycle or focus on only a few vehicles. Using GPS traces, emissions from thousands of private vehicles in three European cities are estimated to identify gross polluters and grossly polluted roads.

Anionic redox has emerged as a new frontier in the design of high-energy cathode materials for next-generation batteries. This study provides a theoretical framework to understand the trilateral correlation of oxygen redox, structural disorder and bond covalency.

The increasing demand for technological products across the world pushes further the consumption of most metals, resulting in growing sustainability concerns. This study examines a yearly cohort of 61 extracted metals over time and estimates their lifetimes and losses throughout their life cycles.