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Reducing direct economic losses from disasters is part of mitigating disaster impacts. This study presents an update to the leading dataset on normalized US hurricane losses in the continental United States from 1900 to 2017.
'No net loss’ biodiversity policies seek to offset biodiversity losses caused by economic development. This study assesses the global extent of such biodiversity offsets, finding that they occupy an area much larger than recognized and that most are small and implemented due to regulatory requirements.
Aviation biofuels for climate change mitigation may be detrimental to other sustainability goals, according to a life-cycle assessment. Negative effects can be mitigated with appropriate technology and supply-chain management.
A provision of the Forest Act in Brazil could legalize deforestation of an additional 6.5–15 million ha of private lands, under a plausible scenario of protected public land reaching 65% in some states.
Sustainability depends on the resilience of natural, social and engineered systems. This theoretical study quantifies resilience to repeated disturbances, synthesizing understanding of how the sizes of shocks, or ‘kicks’, and recovery, or ‘flows’, contribute to maintaining systems in desirable states.
An ecological evaluation of the largest community-based conservation initiative along the Amazon river also shows significant benefits for non-targeted species. This 40-year-old project targets the giant South American turtle.
Assessing electricity consumption in green-certified buildings using high-frequency hourly data shows that such buildings reduce energy demand particularly during peak times, which has additional environmental and economic benefits.
Human and animal faeces simultaneously threaten global health and provide resources for recovery. This study presents the first global-scale analysis of recoverable faeces from 2003 projected to 2030 and of associated burdens. Production from domestic animals is about four times that of humans, emphasizing the need for better onsite management.
China’s coal-dominated power system is a source of carbon emissions, local air pollution and water stress. This study presents three power system development scenarios that run until 2030 in China, where coal strategies are optimized under current environmental regulations and varying prices for air pollutant emissions and water.
Wet biowaste from food processing and animal manure can be converted into biocrude oil using HTL. In this study, the authors combined distillation and esterification to upgrade biocrude into diesel blendstock and performed engine tests using it.
This study spatially maps the economic value of some major ecosystem services provided by the Brazilian Amazon. It also estimates changes in these values under scenarios of degradation and low-impact logging.
Biofuels, produced from grass, algae and other organisms alive today, supplement fuels produced through geological processes. This study finds that moderate intensification of prairie perennial plants can optimize benefits of the resultant biofuels, including soil carbon, greenhouse gas benefits and fuel production.
Cryptocurrency mining requires extensive energy consumption for computers to verify the blockchain and generate new currency. This analysis compares several cryptocurrencies and metals in terms of the amount of energy needed to create one US dollar of value, as well as the carbon emissions that may be directly attributable to cryptocurrency mining.
Provision of electricity in sub-Saharan Africa is often affected by outages leading to increased use of backup diesel generators. In this study, the authors estimate the air emissions, consumer costs and fossil energy consumption resulting from the use of such generators.
The net environmental costs of rare earths production in China, the largest producer, are estimated to be almost US$15 billion. Scenarios show that the largest reduction in environmental impact can be achieved by tackling illegal mining.
Village chickens are commonplace among smallholder communities, but mortality is high. This study compares two regions in Ethiopia and finds that unique adaptations, including traits and parasite burdens, reflect distinct gene pools likely shaped by human-driven selection. Results suggest sustainable interventions for village chickens should be locally tailored.
Most wildlife lives outside protected areas, creating potential conflicts with humans. This study assesses potential trade-offs between wildlife and livestock management in an East African savanna, finding potential ecological and economic benefits from integrating the two.
Machine learning using big data can enhance environmental law monitoring. Applied to the US Clean Water Act, such methods can help public agencies to increase the likelihood of inspecting non-compliant facilities up to sevenfold.
Measures to adapt coastal areas to tsunamis risk creating greater vulnerabilities owing to a false sense of security. Hard-adaptive projects like seawalls must be considered within an assessment of human behaviour and feedback loops.
High-yield farming systems have the potential to spare non-farmed land for other uses (such as nature conservation), but raise concerns about their other environmental impacts (such as greenhouse gas emissions and soil erosion). This study argues such impacts should be measured per unit of production and shows that viewed this way, some land-efficient systems have less impact than lower-yielding alternatives.