Volume 3 Issue 2, February 2020

Engineering approaches to wastewater treatment must aim for more than improved efficiency.

Changes in social and environmental conditions in the Western Highlands of Guatemala undermine food security and job opportunities. We describe how targeted assistance can build upon traditional agricultural systems to increase adaptive capacity, improve nutrition, provide jobs and thereby reduce pressures to migrate.

Disadvantaged communities are vulnerable to the impacts of lead exposure risking further worsening of their living standards, an outcome likely to weaken global efforts towards the Sustainable Development Goals. We urge policy makers to adopt protection systems aimed at safeguarding the most threatened populations.

Arjen Y. Hoekstra, creator of the water footprint concept, unexpectedly passed away at the age of 52. He changed the way we think about water.

Opportunities, challenges and recommended targeted actions to accelerate qualitative data sharing to address complex socio–environmental problems

The diversity of approaches to knowledge production can be challenging for transdisciplinary teams. This Perspective proposes a way to articulate the epistemology, methodology and implementation underpinning research.

Promotion of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) will accompany China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This Perspective notes the potential risks and advocates open-eyed cooperation to build sustainability into this expanding TCM market.

Recent policies to address wildfires mainly addressed risk-related challenges to conduct prescribed fires, but barriers related to resources and regulations need further action, according to a mixed-methods study.

Increased electricity availability has been posited as a boost for gender equity by providing women with access to appliances. However, social and household norms could mitigate this access, as this mixed-methods study investigates.

The cascading effects and feedbacks of interactions between planetary boundaries shrink the safe operating space originally identified by analysing each boundary separately.

Concentrations of glyphosate, a common herbicide, in water can be problematic due to its toxicity. Using both artificial and real water samples, this study shows the sustainability advantages of using magnetite (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles to remove glyphosate from water.

Current methods to remove oil microdroplets from wastewater are ineffective at the variable pH conditions commonly found in wastewater. This study presents a surface-engineered sponge that synergistically combines surface chemistry, charge and roughness, providing a solution to this problem.

By passively evaporating water from waste streams, evaporation ponds work with different waste streams but need large areas due to low evaporation rates. This study shows that a photo-thermal device converting sunlight into mid-infrared radiation could enhance evaporation and reduce land needs.

The recent shift in the United States from coal to natural gas for electric power has reduced the carbon dioxide emissions intensity of electric power production, but the other pollution-related impacts of this shift are not yet known. This study finds that, between 2005 and 2016, decommissioning coal-fired plants in the continental US saved an estimated 26,610 lives and 570 million bushels of corn, soybeans and wheat in their vicinities and also changed regional climate.