Current Research in Environmental Sustainability最新文献

Social media platforms have a key role in spreading narratives about climate change, and therefore it is crucial to understand the discussion about climate change in social media. The discussion on anthropogenic climate change in general, and social media specifically, has multiple different narratives. Understanding the discourses can assist efforts of mitigation, adaptation, and policy measures development. In this work, we collected 333,635 tweets in English about anthropogenic climate change. We used Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning methods to embed the semantic meaning of the tweets into vectors, cluster the tweets, and analyze the results. We clustered the tweets into four clusters that correspond to four narratives in the discussion. Analyzing the behavioral dynamics of each cluster revealed that the clusters focus on the discussion of whether climate change is caused by humans or not, scientific arguments, policy, and conspiracy. The research results can serve as input for media policy and awareness-raising measures on climate change mitigation and adaptation policies, and facilitating future communications related to climate change.

The growing amount of waste originating from food packaging has increased both practical and scholarly interest in the technological development, design and marketing of sustainable food packaging. This article, in turn, scrutinizes the sustainability of packaging from the consumer perspective, arguing that the sustainability of a package is entangled not only in the content of the packaging but also in the functions it fulfills, and that the conditions for acceptable sustainable food packaging from the consumers' perspective differ from the packaging industry's views. We examine the meanings of the packaging functions for consumers based on the data collected through an online consumer panel in Finland. The findings show that while the containment function of packaging plays the most important role for the consumer in general, the informative function is particularly relevant from the viewpoint of sustainability. Moreover, we identified two novel functions consumers highly appreciate –usability and disposability – that are largely irrelevant from the industry perspective. The findings provide important insights in the transformation to more sustainable food packaging and in the development of novel packaging solutions.

This research assesses the urban heat island (UHI) vulnerability of Thailand's Bangkok metropolis using a sustainability-focused assessment framework which encompasses three vulnerability components: exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. In the assessment, the UHI vulnerability indicators are used to determine the extent and magnitude of UHI vulnerability. In addition, the UHI vulnerability indicators are aligned with the three pillars of sustainability: social equity, economic viability, and environmental protection. The results show that, under the exposure component, the indicators related to land surface temperature and impervious surface area have high to very high UHI exposure indicator scores. Under the sensitivity component, the indicators related to built environment, green spaces, and water bodies exhibit high to very high UHI sensitivity indicator scores. Under the adaptive capacity component, the indicators associated with government policy and action, multi-agency collaboration, and access to climate control appliances require corrective action. The metropolis- and administrative district-level UHI vulnerability indexes identify the extent and magnitude of UHI vulnerability of different urban areas, with high exposure and high sensitivity indexes and low adaptive capacity indexes contributing to high UHI vulnerability. Essentially, the findings enable urban planners and policymakers to formulate effective strategies to mitigate the impacts of UHI and enhance the city's resilience.

The climate impact of food is rapidly gaining attention. Studies focus on global and national impacts, marginalising the role and preferences of individual consumers. Diet is highly personal and for changes to be widely adopted they should be consistent with peoples' lifestyles, preferences, tastes, and knowledge. We construct global scenarios of reducing meat consumption and model their carbon mitigation potential to 2050. We conduct a simple survey to explore UK consumers' preferences for different approaches to reducing meat consumption, which are used to develop scenarios, and units for communicating the associated portion sizes and emissions savings. Results from our survey suggest that modest reductions in meat consumption are more resonant (e.g., eating three portions per week) rather than absolutes (becoming vegan for one month) or abstractions (consuming 170 cal of meat per day). Similarly, tangible analogies such as number of airline flights are preferred over raw emissions abated. We find that reducing meat intake to recommended healthy levels (92 cal per day) and avoiding ruminant meat could almost halve production-phase GHG emissions from the food system. Our survey illustrates how such information can be rephrased for more engaging communication: “reducing your meat intake to three times per week is equivalent to avoiding six short-haul return flights each year”.

While small-scale farming households constitute a large part of the population, as well as the producers of the majority of food supplies in low- and middle-income countries, major gaps remain in the ability to produce reliable solutions to achieve sustainability in family farming.

This special issue aims to address some blind spots and shed new light on sustainability in family farming using sustainability science. The publications presented in this special issue will enable readers to grasp the importance of a detailed and situated understanding of the needs and practices of family farming, as well as the importance of involving farmers and their families in our research to find solutions for improving the sustainability of family farming that will benefit everyone.

The purpose of the European Green Deal and the regulation associated with the so-called EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities is to lead capital flows towards sustainable investments. According to the European Commission this is necessary to finance solutions for the immense challenges ahead, such as climate change, social inequality, and loss of biodiversity. However, academic research raises concerns that sustainable investments may earn lower risk-adjusted returns in the long run. The European Supervisory Authorities identify greenwashing risks and pronounce the limited ability of retail investors to make informed investment decisions. The aim of this perspective article is to provide suggestions for a regulation on relevant information on sustainable investments provided by financial service providers to retail investors. Therefore, the existing regulations are put in relation with recent research on investments considering ESG issues. To enable retail investors' self-determined decision-making, financial service providers such as banks, mutual funds, and financial advisors must provide easily accessible, clear, and easily understandable information regarding the ESG-conformity of the offered financial products. In addition, financial service providers must inform retail investors about some specific risks that can arise from a narrow focus on ESG assets such as under-diversification, an overweight of large stocks, and returns that can be lower than the market return.

The rapid urbanization and rural-urban migration trends have led to an increase in building construction activities, shifting from traditional practices to modern concrete structures. However, this transition has imposed significant environmental pressures, including heightened resource and energy demands, resulting in increased emissions. To gauge the environmental impact of construction, a thorough examination of each phase is crucial. This study used the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool, based on ISO 14040:2006, ISO 14044:2006, and EN 15978:2011, to evaluate the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂-eq) emissions throughout the complete life cycle of a modern single-family residential building. The findings reveal a total energy use of 6411.33 MJ per square meter and emissions of 718.35 kg CO₂-eq per square meter over the building's lifespan of 50 years. Notably, the production of building materials and the construction phase contribute to the highest percentage (60.29%) of the total life cycle emissions owing to 49.51% of energy use. In contrast, emissions during the operational phase are relatively lower, attributed to increased electricity usage for cooking and minimal energy consumption for heating and cooling. Additionally, the study suggests that achieving complete electricity sufficiency within the country could reduce building emissions by 39.30%, as fossil fuel-based imports from India would be replaced with cleaner hydroelectricity.

This study explored the effect of climate related hazard-induced risks on migration using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data were collected by conducting a field survey in Cumilla City Corporation, eastern Bangladesh, with 100 respondents using simple random and purposive sampling techniques. Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed using an integrated thematic analysis method directed by numerical and non-numerical coding. The findings revealed that climate-related incidents in Bangladesh forced people to move from vulnerable to less vulnerable areas. People who have been hurt by disasters often decided early on to move away in search of a better life. Although many disaster-affected people had the minimum opportunity to stay in the same places, they migrated to avoid future risks and search for a secure life. Migrants faced many socio-economic and environmental challenges in their new settlements. The raising awareness and policy strategies regarding environmental pollution and climate adaptation are urgently needed to reduce the hazard risks and vulnerability of the communities.

The impact of biochar application on crop yield has always been a topic of concern. However, most current research focuses on the short-term effects of biochar on crop growth. Investigating the long-term effects of biochar in increasing crop yields is crucial for food security and sustainable agricultural development. To address this issue, this study performed a coupling of meta-analysis and structural equation model (SEM) based on the establishment of a dataset containing 981 sets of observations. The results demonstrated that biochar significantly and durably boosted crop yield, and biochar also has shown an average increase of 36.2% in SOC over a monitoring period exceeding 2 years. Crop yields increased by an average of 16% after biochar application for the long-term scale, although the increase varied across crop types, and biochar application performed better on corn and wheat than paddy rice production. It is noteworthy that the yield still increased by 15% on average after 6 years of biochar application. According to SEM, the yield increase was positively correlated with the application amount of biochar, and the yield increase was higher under low nitrogen (N) input than under high N input. The long-term yield-increasing effect of biochar was more attributable to its enhancement of SOC rather than its effects on soil bulk density and pH.