Global supply chains amplify economic costs of future extreme heat risk.

Evidence shows a continuing increase in the frequency and severity of global heatwaves, raising concerns about the future impacts of climate change and the associated socioeconomic costs. Here we develop a disaster footprint analytical framework by integrating climate, epidemiological and hybrid input-output and computable general equilibrium global trade models to estimate the midcentury socioeconomic impacts of heat stress. We consider health costs related to heat exposure, the value of heat-induced labour productivity loss and indirect losses due to economic disruptions cascading through supply chains.

First report of the ectomycorrhizal fungal community associated with two herbaceous plants in Inner Mongolia, China.

Ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi play a vital role in ensuring plant health, plant diversity, and ecosystem function. However, the study on fungal diversity and community assembly of EM fungi associated with herbaceous plants remains poorly understood. Thus, in our study, and in the subalpine meadow of central Inner Mongolia, China were selected for exploring EM fungal diversity and community assembly mechanisms by using llumina MiSeq sequencing of the fungal internal transcribed spacer 2 region (ITS2).

Unexpected deterioration of O pollution in the South Coast Air Basin of California: The role of meteorology and emissions.

Tropospheric ozone (O) pollution has long been a prominent environmental threat due to its adverse impacts on vulnerable populations and ecosystems. In recent years, an unexpected increase in O levels over the South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB) of California has been observed despite reduced precursor emissions and the driving factors behind this abnormal condition remain unclear. In this work, we combine ambient measurements, satellite data, and air quality modeling to investigate O and precursor emission trends and explore the impacts of meteorological variability and emission changes on O over the SoCAB from 2012 to 2020.

Supply chains create global benefits from improved vaccine accessibility.

Ensuring a more equitable distribution of vaccines worldwide is an effective strategy to control global pandemics and support economic recovery. We analyze the socioeconomic effects - defined as health gains, lockdown-easing effect, and supply-chain rebuilding benefit - of a set of idealized COVID-19 vaccine distribution scenarios. We find that an equitable vaccine distribution across the world would increase global economic benefits by 11.

Decarbonization will lead to more equitable air quality in California.

Air quality associated public health co-benefit may emerge from climate and energy policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the distribution of these co-benefits has not been carefully studied, despite the opportunity to tailor mitigation efforts so they achieve maximum benefits within socially and economically disadvantaged communities (DACs). Here, we quantify such health co-benefits from different long-term, low-carbon scenarios in California and their distribution in the context of social vulnerability.

Health Benefits in California of Strengthening the Fine Particulate Matter Standards.

The Clean Air Act requires the United States Environmental Protection Agency to review routinely the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, including fine particulate matter (PM). A non-governmental Independent Particulate Matter Review Panel recently concluded that the current PM standards do not protect public health adequately and recommended revising the daily standard from 35 to 25-30 μg/m and the annual standard from 12 to 8-10 μg/m. To assess the public health implications of adopting the PM standards proposed by the panel, the health benefits are quantified from their implementation based on both current (observed) and future (simulated) air quality data for California.

Benefits of near-zero freight: The air quality and health impacts of low-NO compressed natural gas trucks.

The use of low-NOx compressed natural gas (CNG) medium-duty vehicles (MDVs) and heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) has the potential to significantly reduce NO emissions and yield improvements in regional air quality. However, the extent of air quality improvement depends on many factors including future levels of vehicle deployment, the evolution of emissions from other sources, and meteorology. An analysis of the impacts requires modeling the atmosphere to account for both primary and secondary air pollutants, and the use of health impact assessment tools to map air quality changes into quantifiable metrics of human health.

An Episodic Assessment of Vehicle Emission Regulations on Saving Lives in California.

Historically, California has been a world leader in the development and application of environmental regulations. Policies to address air pollution have reduced criteria pollutant emissions, improved regional air quality, and benefited public health. To this end, California has imposed strict regulations on light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicles to reduce ambient concentrations of health-damaging pollutants such as ozone and fine particulate matter (PM).

Comprehensively assessing the drivers of future air quality in California.

In this study we analyze the impact of major drivers of future air quality, both separately and simultaneously, for the year 2035 in three major California air basins: the South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB), the San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA), and the San Joaquin Valley (SJV). A variety of scenarios are considered based on changes in climate-driven meteorological conditions and both biogenic and anthropogenic emissions. Anthropogenic emissions are based on (1) the California Air Resources Board (CARB) California Emissions Projection Analysis Model (CEPAM), (2) increases in electric sector emissions due to climate change, and (3) aggressive adoption of alternative energy technologies electrification of end-use technologies, and energy efficiency measures.

Simulation of particle diversity and mixing state over Greater Paris: a model-measurement inter-comparison.

Air quality models are used to simulate and forecast pollutant concentrations, from continental scales to regional and urban scales. These models usually assume that particles are internally mixed, i.e.