Nature Sustainability October 2020
Volume 3 Issue 10, October 2020
Dust and infant mortality
Air pollution impacts health globally, but studying this effect is challenging because economic development worsens pollution while bettering health. Burke and colleagues focus on the health effects of distant Saharan dust, unlinked from economic activity, and find that it leads to a large rise in infant mortality.
See Heft-Neal et al.
Image: George Steinmetz. Cover design: Valentina Monaco.
Editorial
Editorial | 13 October 2020
Evidence synthesis for sustainability
The volume of work contributing substantial understanding and new evidence about sustainability challenges is growing. Making the most of it is imperative for interventions to be really effective.
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Correspondence
- Ingo Liefner
- , Sebastian Losacker
- & Balkrishna C. Rao
Correspondence | 27 July 2020
Scale up advanced frugal design principles
Comment & Opinion
- David M. Hannah
- Iseult Lynch
- & Stefan Krause
Comment | 24 August 2020
Water and sanitation for all in a pandemic
Hand hygiene is critical for reducing transmission of communicable diseases, as we are so acutely aware during the COVID-19 pandemic. UNICEF has identified behaviour change and knowledge promotion as top strategies for increasing handwashing during this crisis, while acknowledging that millions of people lack the water necessary for handwashing.
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Reviews
- Ian J. Bateman
- & Georgina M. Mace
- Lisa A. Levin
- , Diva J. Amon
- & Hannah Lily
Perspective | 08 July 2020
The natural capital framework for sustainably efficient and equitable decision making
The natural capital concept is making way into government policy processes and the private sector, but different understandings of the approach might lead to misuse or omissions. In order to address this issue, a comprehensive framework for natural capital analysis and decision making is presented.
Review Article | 06 July 2020
Challenges to the sustainability of deep-seabed mining
This Review covers the sustainability of deep-seabed mining, suggesting a slower transition from exploration to exploitation may be beneficial.
Research
- Yiwen Zeng
- , Sean Maxwell
- & L. Roman Carrasco
- Lenis Saweda O. Liverpool-Tasie
- ,yala Wineman
- & Ashley Celestin
- Valeria Piñeiro
- , Joaquín Arias
- & Maximo Torero
- Tanya Stathers
- Deirdre Holcroft
- & Maximo Torero
- Vincent Ricciardi
- , Abdrahmane Wane
- & Zia Mehrabi
- Stephanie A. Spera
- , Jonathan M. Winter
- & Trevor F. Partridge
- Zhenchang Zhu
- , Vincent Vuik
- & Tjeerd J. Bouma
- Sam Heft-Neal
- , Jennifer Burney
- & Marshall Burke
- Axel Ockenfels
- , Peter Werner
- & Ottmar Edenhofer
- Min Lv
- , Xiaolin Luan
- & Lingxin Chen
Brief Communication | 29 June 2020
Environmental destruction not avoided with the Sustainable Development Goals
Comparing relevant indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals with other indicators of biodiversity trends shows little relation between the two, because the former more strongly reflect socioeconomic indicators.
Article | 12 October 2020 | Open Access
A scoping review of market links between value chain actors and small-scale producers in developing regions
To promote sustainable agriculture, small-scale producers must be included in the transformation of food systems. This scoping review finds that non-contract interactions provide producers with services such as credit, information and logistics.
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Article | 12 October 2020 | Open Access
A scoping review on incentives for adoption of sustainable agricultural practices and their outcomes
A more sustainable agriculture is needed to address global food security and environmental degradation. This scoping review surveys the incentives for farmers to adopt sustainable practices benefiting their farms, the environment or both.
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Article | 12 October 2020 | Open Access
A scoping review of interventions for crop postharvest loss reduction in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
Reducing postharvest crop losses is vital to sustainably increase agricultural productivity. This analysis reveals a need for systematic assessment of postharvest loss reduction interventions across the value chain, targeting stakeholders beyond farmers, and for a more diverse range of food crops, to shape future policy decisions.
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Article | 12 October 2020 | Open Access
A scoping review of research funding for small-scale farmers in water scarce regions
A geospatial estimate of water scarcity in middle- to low-income countries finds that less than 37% of small-scale farms have irrigation. However, there exist considerable gaps in evidence for most commonly proposed, on-farm interventions.
Collection:
Article | 29 June 2020
Brazilian maize yields negatively affected by climate after land clearing
Half of Brazil’s tropical Cerrado savannah has been cleared for agropastoral use. Using models, this study finds that this clearing is degrading regional weather, reducing maize yields there.
Article | 29 June 2020
Historic storms and the hidden value of coastal wetlands for nature-based flood defence
Coastal wetlands may affect flood risks, as from rising sea level. This study finds that saltmarshes provided coastal defence from historic Northwest European floods.
Article | 29 June 2020
Dust pollution from the Sahara and African infant mortality
Air pollution harms health but rises with economic activity, which aids health. This study uses long-range Saharan dust to isolate impacts, finding a significant rise in Sub-Saharan infant mortality from particulate pollution.
Article | 29 June 2020
Pricing externalities and moral behaviour
Moral concerns matter for decisions in markets where activities generate negative externalities such as pollution emissions. With controlled experiments in which trading creates pollution, this study shows that a large portion of producers refrain from polluting even at the cost of forgoing profits.
Analysis | 29 June 2020
Human impacts on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon distribution in Chinese intertidal zones
Little is known about how human factors influence the patterns of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the intertidal zone, a transitional boundary between terrestrial and marine environments. This study shows that human activities affect both the distribution and the deposition of PAHs.
Amendments & Corrections
- Georgina M. Mace
- Mike Barrett
- & Andy Purvis
Author Correction | 10 August 2020
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