Reviews & Analysis

Minerals are essential to human development, from toothpaste to building materials, but are often seen as an impediment to sustainable development. This narrative must change to ensure sustainable and equitable access to minerals for the globe.

Greenhouse gas emissions can be traced to the behaviour of individuals. Now, research quantifies carbon footprints worldwide, showing that the richest ten per cent are responsible for nearly half of all emissions.

Wildfires are increasing across the United States and are a growing contributor to air pollution. Combining high-resolution satellite- and ground-based data on smoke exposure with standardized test scores reveals that smoke exposure worsens school students’ learning outcomes. The costs of lowered performance are mostly borne by economically disadvantaged communities of colour.

As the pressure on Amazonian forests builds, the search for more sustainable agricultural development pathways has intensified. Access to floodplain soils can reduce pressure on upland forests and prevent them being cleared for agriculture. Floodplain farming can be a solution to enable both sustainable agriculture and forest conservation.

Chemical control of insect pests is considered a necessary evil of modern intensive agricultural practices. New approaches exploiting chemical ecology and genetically modified plants as ‘green factories’ point the way to harvests that are less reliant on insecticides.

Anaemia remains an intransigent global health problem that increases the risk of morbidity and mortality for women and children, and nowhere more so than in India. Now, a study links particulate air pollution exposure with anaemia in women of reproductive age.

Greenland is rich in natural mineral resources and has been actively investigating the economic potential of expanded mineral extraction. However, public opinion calls for the assessment of the environmental and social impacts of mineral extraction.

There are no silver bullet chemistries for batteries — but zinc technology, with its safety, cost and environmental advantages, has received renewed interest as a choice for sustainability. Now, direct imaging sheds light on the charge carrier, clearing a major barrier to understanding and upgrading this energy system.

Hydrological modelling makes it possible to derive measures of water availability that are representative of its importance for human sustenance. This approach, and focusing on water utilization processes rather than simplifying them into environmental factors, helps identify new quantitative evidence of interconnections between conflict, society and the environment.

Sustainable agrifood systems are critical to redefining the interactions of humanity and nature in the twenty-first century. This Perspective presents an agenda and examples for the comprehensive redesign of agrifood systems according to principles of sufficiency, regeneration, distribution, commons and care.

The simplicity of the urban–rural divide for research hides and blurs many complexities of human settlements and natural ecosystems. This perspective examines the peri-urban landscape and provisions of service that take place across this frontier.

Little is known about the potential of digital twins in the pursuit of sustainability. This study examines the likely benefits of digital twins in urban sustainability paradigms, their limitations when modelling socio-technical and socio-ecological systems and possible ways to attenuate them.

The management of introduced species, whether kudzu or zebra mussels, is costly and complex. Now, a paper reports a workable, effective solution that harnesses network analyses of ecological phenomena.

Billions of people across the globe lack access to safe drinking water. Now a study sheds light on the potential for sunlight-based technologies to offer reliable disinfection for rural populations, which are often the most underserved.

The cause of the sudden increase in the complexity of prehistoric societies 4,000–6,000 years ago is unknown. Pig diet and millet-field manuring studies indicate that an intensive millet–pig system developed approximately 5,500 years ago in North China, which provided food for the growing populations of the emerging complex societies.

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.

Early human impacts on the environment can illuminate current sustainability challenges. A new paper argues that 5,500 years ago in North China a positive feedback cycle between two domesticated species sparked ongoing intensification of agriculture production and intervention in nature.

Co-culture systems produce more food per land unit — offering a sustainable solution to food security. The first step may lie in optimizing for diverse species interaction networks, much like the way engineers design manufacturing systems for optimal productivity.

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.