Strengthening resilience-elasticity or adaptive capacity-is essential in responding to the wide range of natural hazards and anthropogenic changes humanity faces. Chemistry's roles in resilience are explored for the first time, with its technical capacities set in the wider contexts of cross-disciplinary working and the intersecting worlds of science, society and policy. The roles are framed by chemistry's contributions to the sustainability of people and planet, examined via the human security framework's four material aspects of food, health, economic and environmental security. As the science of transformation of matter, chemistry is deeply involved in these material aspects and in their interfacing with human security's three societal and governance aspects of personal, community and political security. Ultimately, strengthening resilience requires making choices about the present use of resources as a hedge against future hazards and adverse events, with these choices being co-determined by technical capacities and social and political will. It is argued that, to intensify its contributions to resilience, chemistry needs to take action along at least three major lines: (i) taking an integrative approach to the field of 'chemistry and resilience'; (ii) rethinking how the chemical industry operates; and (iii) engaging more with society and policy-makers.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.212004 | DOI Listing |
BMC Surg
January 2025
Global Surgery Division, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Climate change is an emerging global health crisis, disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where health outcomes are increasingly compromised by environmental stressors such as pollution, natural disasters, and human migration. With a focus on promoting health equity, Global Surgery advocates for expanding access to surgical care and enhancing health outcomes, particularly in resource-limited and disaster-affected areas like LMICs. The healthcare industry-and more specifically, surgical care-significantly contributes to the global carbon footprint, primarily through resource-intensive settings, i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPediatr Pulmonol
January 2025
Stead Family Department of Pediatrics, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.
Background: People with cystic fibrosis (CF) may not expectorate sputum at young ages or after they receive CFTR modulators. While oropharyngeal swabs are commonly used to test for lower airway pathogens, it is unknown whether Staphylococcus aureus from the oropharynx matches the strain(s) infecting the lungs. Our goal was to determine whether oropharyngeal and sputum isolates of S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAquat Toxicol
December 2024
Department of Life Sciences, Marine Resources, Conservation and Technology, CFE-Centre for Functional Ecology: Science for People & Planet, University of Coimbra, Coimbra 3000-456, Portugal; Department of Biology and CESAM, University of Aveiro, Aveiro 3810-193, Portugal.
Microplastics (MPs) are persistent and ubiquitous pollutants in marine ecosystems, and they can be ingested and accumulated by marine organisms with economic value to humans, such as marine bivalves, which may pose a threat to the marine food chains and to human health. In this literature review, we summarized the recent findings on the abundance and main characteristics (shape, size, color, polymer) of MPs detected in valuable marine bivalve species. Furthermore, we surveyed the major impacts triggered by MP exposure, alone or in combination with other pollutants, in these organisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Reprod Dev
December 2024
Advanced Biotechnology Center, University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi 400-8510, Japan.
In the future, human beings will surely expand into space. But given its unique risks, will humanity thrive in space environments? For example, when humans begin living and reproducing in space habitats or on other planets in the solar system, are there risks that future generations may suffer from adverse mutations induced by space radiation, or that embryos and fetuses will develop abnormally in gravitational environments that differ from that of Earth? Moreover, human expansion to other stellar systems requires that for each breed of animal, thousands of individuals must be transported to destination planets to prevent populations from experiencing inbreeding-related degeneration. In even more distant future, when humans have spread throughout the galaxy, all genetic resources on Earth, the planet where humans originated, must be permanently and safely stored- but is this even possible? Such issues with future space colonization may not be an urgent research priority, but research and technological development accompanying advancements in spaceflight will excite many people and contribute to technological improvements that can improve living standards in the present day (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrends Psychiatry Psychother
January 2025
Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Católica de Pelotas (UCPel), Pelotas, RS, Brazil.
Introduction: Climate change is happening, and feeling anxiety can be seen as a natural response to it. Climate anxiety is the worry about the climate crisis and could be related to specific emotions and thoughts. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of worry about climate change, and to describe the emotions and thoughts associated to it in Brazilian adults.
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