One Earth最新文献

Around the world, fire regimes are shifting due to changing climate, land use and management, and human populations and infrastructure. While fire is a healthy and necessary process for many ecosystems, altered fire regimes are increasing risk to both people and wildlife in many regions. Reducing risk requires a holistic approach with investment from many stakeholders. In this Voices, we ask: what aspects of fire hazard, vulnerability, and exposure can be mitigated, and what collaborations does this require?

Evidence-based science communication and additional policy interventions are urgently needed to address widespread per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) pollution. Messaging about PFASs should highlight exposure-reduction strategies and prioritize underserved communities. PFASs are not simply drinking-water pollutants; they are substances with myriad exposure pathways that require a systemic federal response.

As wildfires worsen across the globe, there is increased attention on the inequitable distribution of the risks to people. Pre-existing risks and vulnerabilities compound the risk to many populations. Those who bear the worst of these risks are usually underserved and ethnic/racial minority communities.

Marine euxinia can amplify phosphorous-limited marine productivity by recycling phosphorous from sediments, creating a feedback loop that increases marine oxygen consumption and ultimately leads to widespread oceanic anoxia. This phenomenon is potentially more dangerous when oxygen loss arises in coastal zones. Here, we present empirical evidence and show that this cascade was set off in the Cambrian Earth system. Carbon isotopes and Mo enrichments in well-dated sediment records from the Steptoean Positive Carbon Isotope Excursion (SPICE) event reveal a rapid decline over 130 ± 30 ka to persistently low Mo levels for 1.0 ± 0.2 Ma, followed by a slower recovery. Using dynamic models for the global biogeochemical cycles, we demonstrate that marine anoxia expanded globally through a self-cascading feedback mechanism. Importantly, we find that the benthic phosphorous flux likely scaled with sedimentation, and that chemocline shoaling into coastal areas likely triggered the SPICE event. We evaluate the risk of passing the tipping point for global-scale anoxia today.

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Social tipping points are promising levers for accelerating decarbonization progress. They describe how social, political, economic, or technological systems can move rapidly into a new state if positive feedback mechanisms are triggered. Analyzing the potential for social tipping requires the inherent complexity of social systems to be considered. Yet the growing social tipping literature is missing a practical framework that embeds conceptual and empirical aspects of complex feedback processes. In this perspective, we propose a dynamic systems approach that can contextualize conceptual social tipping mechanisms into practical interventions, and map the key feedback mechanisms underlying tipping dynamics across systems and scales. Our approach has three main components: a systems outlook involving interconnected feedback mechanisms; directed data collection for empirical evidence and monitoring tipping dynamics ; and global, integrated, descriptive modeling to project future dynamics and provide ex ante evidence for tipping interventions. We demonstrate how and why this approach should shape a broad agenda to strengthen the viability and effectiveness of social tipping research.

Dr. Lara Steil is the Fire Management Officer in the Forestry Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Prior to her position at FAO, she coordinated efforts at Brazil’s National Center for Wildfire Prevention and Suppression to promote national and international collaboration related to integrated fire management. Working for FAO, she has led the development of the Global Fire Management Hub since 2023. The views of Dr. Steil are hers only and do not necessarily reflect those of the FAO.

As the international community strives to conserve 30% of Earth’s lands and waters by 2030, the full extent of area-based conservation remains unclear. Official databases do not fully recognize and track the diversity of conservation-relevant governance systems, hindering conservation research, policy, planning, and action. Here, we describe and test an inclusive, empirically grounded approach to documenting area-based governance systems that potentially advance biodiversity conservation. Among Amazonian countries, we identify greater area coverage and diversity of conservation governance systems than official databases. We further illustrate the relevance of this approach using global examples of under-recognized conservation governance systems. Our findings highlight the need for an inclusive, empirically grounded inventory that reflects the full diversity of area-based conservation systems. We recommend researchers, governments, non-state actors, and donors to adopt similar inventories to increase feasibility, transparency, and inclusivity as a foundational component of global efforts to fulfill international commitments and create a nature-positive future.