Discover Sustainability最新文献

Silver nanomaterials (AgNMs) are increasingly integrated into textiles due to their unique functionalities, such as antimicrobial, odour-resistant, and self-cleaning properties. Their widespread use, though beneficial, raises concerns about environmental and human health impacts across their entire life cycle spanning synthesis, manufacturing, use, and end-of-life. This review evaluates the scientific literature available, selected through structured keyword-based searches across major academic databases, focusing on studies relevant to AgNMs in textile applications. The analysis is framed by the 12 Green Chemistry Principles and the Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) framework, a European policy initiative that promotes the integration of safety, sustainability, and functionality from early design stages. This review identifies the promising results of plant-based and enzymatic methods as safer and more sustainable options due to their reduced usage of toxic reagents and use of renewable sources. The manufacturing stage remains complex due to diverse integration methods, occupational exposure concerns, and inconsistent application of sustainability metrics. The use phase underscores environmental implications primarily from AgNM release during laundering, while direct human health risks remain comparatively low. Finally, the end-of-life stage reveals lower-than-anticipated ecological risks, largely due to effective sequestration of AgNMs in wastewater treatment sludges, although these demands a transition towards circular recovery strategies. The review highlights critical knowledge gaps in long-term environmental behaviour, exposure modelling, and standardization of performance metrics. Recommendations include expanding quantitative data collection, improving transparency in product labelling, and integrating circular recovery strategies. Advancements in SSbD frameworks, quantitative sustainability indicators, and EU-led initiatives provide actionable pathways to enhance stakeholder confidence and promote sustainable textile innovation. This work provides a comprehensive and policy-relevant synthesis to guide future research and safer innovation in nanomaterial-enabled textiles.

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The importance of common bean in Tanzania is increasingly challenged by climate change, which increases women's vulnerability and undermines the contribution of the crop to food security and rural livelihoods. This study assessed gender differences in the use of climate-smart agriculture technologies and practices among bean farmers in Tanzania. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to collect data from 364 smallholder bean farmers. Descriptive statistics and a multivariate probit model were employed to analyse the determinants of farmers' adoption of climate-smart agricultural technologies and practices in common bean production. Results revealed that men dominated climate-adaptation decision-making processes at the household level because of their ownership and control over access to land, and access to agricultural support services. Older men farmers demonstrated a positive and significantly higher likelihood of adopting improved seeds (β = 0.026; p < 0.01), signifying they possess greater accumulated knowledge and wealth compared to women farmers and youths. Women farmers also had lower levels of education with fewer technological access contributing to their low uptake of climate-smart technologies, aggravating their vulnerability to climate change. Enhancing inclusive gender access to land and group-based approaches to information dissemination, and capacity building, would be relevant in enabling men, women, and young farmers to improve their adaptive and resilience capacities to climate change. Gender dynamics should be considered in designing climate-smart agriculture policies and implementation of climate-smart agriculture  programs and policies to improve farmers' resilience to climate change.

The evolving 'permacrisis' of compounding environmental and social challenges calls for transformative approaches to understanding and intervening in socio-ecological systems. Approaches to support systems thinking and understanding can be vital to achieving this goal. However, applying such systems thinking is often challenging, and we need to better reflect on the pros and cons of different approaches for building systems understanding and informing changes. In this paper, we first identify key attributes of systems thinking approaches from literature. We then use these as a framework for comparing and evaluating seven different systems thinking approaches, selected on the basis of our experience in applying them in support of the management and governance of various types of land systems. The seven approaches are: agent-based modelling, Bayesian belief networks, causal loop modelling, spatial multicriteria analysis, societal metabolic analyses, social network mapping and quantitative story telling. This framework has allowed us to appraise and reflect on our own experiences to identify the respective strengths and weaknesses of these different methodologies. We note that some of the ability to inform change depends as much on the context within which specific tools are used as the particular features of the tools themselves. Based on our appraisal, we conclude by suggesting six key recommendations that should be followed by others seeking to commission and use systems approaches, in order to enable them to support transformative change. We hope this may be useful to those working with systems approaches, since there is an urgent need for analytic efforts that can inform and enable transformative change. We also reiterate the call for sustained funding for long-term, standards-based evaluation of systems thinking approaches with respect to whether their use can demonstrate instrumental impacts leading to the kind of transformation the IPCC has called for, i.e. fundamental system change that goes beyond capacity development impacts such as network-building.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and zoonotic diseases are global public health threats with serious implications for human, animal, and environmental health. In South Africa, AMR and zoonotic disease outbreaks pose significant threats to public health and food security. Despite a robust AMR surveillance system for human health, the absence of a national routine surveillance program for livestock hinders a comprehensive One Health (OH) approach. The 2024 UK-South Africa workshop in Cape Town convened key stakeholders from human and animal health, environmental sciences, and food production to address these challenges. Discussions focused on integrating OH surveillance, leveraging Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) for early outbreak detection, and improving food and water safety. Workshop outcomes emphasized the necessity of cross-sector collaboration to enhance AMR monitoring and outbreak preparedness. Stakeholder engagement, particularly within agricultural communities, was identified as critical for OH implementation. Participants highlighted the need for culturally sensitive engagement strategies, qualitative research methods, and policy reforms to drive adoption. Lessons from tuberculosis (TB) and HIV programs informed strategies for fostering compliance and integrating OH principles into veterinary education, particularly in antimicrobial stewardship. Challenges such as resource limitations, bioinformatics capacity gaps, and resistance to new technologies were addressed through recommendations for joint consortia, leveraging existing infrastructure, and targeted training. Aligning OH initiatives with consumer-driven concerns, such as water quality monitoring, was also identified as a key opportunity. Moving forward, translating research into action will require sustained collaboration, policy alignment, and community engagement. Strengthening OH surveillance can enhance South Africa's ability to prevent and control infectious diseases, ensuring long-term public health resilience and food security.

The United Nations, through its subsidiary agency United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), has put in such resources to curb infant mortality in pursuit of the Sustainable development goals (SDG). Nevertheless, the issue of under-five mortality is still persistent in so many developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, this study investigated the long-term and short-term impacts of solid waste, urbanization, and pollution on under-five mortality, employing the Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and the dynamic Autoregressive distributed lag (DARDL) models for the empirical investigations and robustness checks, respectively. The study found that there is significant cointegration between the interest variables. While key findings from the DARDL results revealed that pollution, urbanization, and solid waste have long-term significant positive impacts on under-five mortality in Nigeria, the short-run outcome shows that urbanization and solid waste had a significant positive impact on under-five mortality, while pollution was statistically insignificant. Moreover, lead exposure showed a significant long-term positive and short-term negative impact on under-five mortality in Nigeria. Furthermore, the DARDL simulations show higher long-run shocks and variations as compared to the short run. Thus, CO₂ emissions, urbanization, and solid waste encourage under-five deaths in Nigeria. The study recommends, among other things, the enactment of environmental laws that will curb CO₂ emissions in the country while also strengthening the existing ones, discourage indiscriminate solid waste disposal, and encourage investment in clean technologies and modern healthcare facilities in urban areas of Nigeria.

Climate change leading to Climate extremes in the twenty-first century is more evident in megacities across the world, especially in West Africa. The Greater Accra region is one of the most populated regions in West Africa. As a result, the region has become more susceptible to climate extremes such as floods, heatwaves, and droughts. The study employed the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 models in simulating climate extreme indices under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway scenarios (SSPs) over West Africa between 1979 and 2059 as exemplified by the Greater Accra region. The study observed a generally weak drought in the historical period and expected to intensify especially under SSP585 in Greater Accra. For instance, continuous dry days (CDD) reveal an increasing trend under the SSPs. Similarly, the overall projected trend of CDD over West Africa reveals an increase signifying a more frequent and longer drought in the future. The flood indices revealed a surge in the intensity and duration of extreme precipitation events under the SSPs in the region. For instance, R99pTOT and Rx5days are expected to significantly increase under the SSPs with intensification under the SSP245, SSP370, and SSP585. A similar trend has been projected across West Africa, especially along the Guinean coast. The study foresees a gradual and intensifying rise in heatwave indices over the Greater Accra region. The warming and cooling indices reveal an increasing and decreasing trend respectively in the historical period as well as under the SSPs particularly within urban centers like Accra and Tema. Most West African countries are projected to observe more frequent warm days and nights with cold nights and days becoming less frequent. Expected effects of future climate extreme indices pose potential threats to the water, food, and energy systems as well as trigger recurrent floods and droughts over Greater Accra. The findings of the study are expected to inform climate policies and the nationally determined contribution of the Paris Agreement as well as address the sustainable development goal 11 (Sustainable cities) and 13 (Climate action) in West Africa.