Do plastic clean-up technologies work? What research does (and doesn't) tell us.

Plastic pollution harms all levels of ecosystems and organisms; therefore, global plastic pollution must be addressed at all plastic life cycle stages. One solution involves the clean-up and remediation of plastic pollution using technologies. To further our understanding of these technologies, we collated 102 clean-up technologies invented to prevent or collect plastic in aquatic environments and analyzed the non-peer-reviewed and peer-reviewed literature for effectiveness and ecological impact data.

Wet bulb globe temperature from climate model outputs: a method for projecting hourly site-specific values and trends.

Increasing temperature will impact future outdoor worker safety but quantifying this impact to develop local adaptations is challenging. Wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) is the preferred thermal index for regulating outdoor activities in occupational health, athletic, and military settings, but global circulation models (GCMs) have coarse spatiotemporal resolution and do not always provide outputs required to project the full diurnal range of WBGT. This article presents a novel method to project WBGT at local spatial and hourly temporal resolutions without many assumptions inherent in previous research.

The Association between Long-term PM2.5 Exposure and Risk for Pancreatic Cancer: An Application of Social Informatics.

There is a profound need to identify modifiable risk factors to screen and prevent pancreatic cancer. Air pollution, including fine particulate matter (PM2.5), is increasingly recognized as a risk factor for cancer.

The Climate Change Burden on Immune Health: Are Persons Living with HIV More at Risk?

Climate change poses one of the most significant modern threats to overall human health,especially for vulnerable populations including persons living with HIV (PLWH). In this perspective, we specifically explore the concept of immune resilience in human health and how climate change phenomena - including extreme weather events, food insecurity, pollution, and emerging diseases - may exacerbate immune dysfunction and comorbidities faced by PLWH and hinder access to HIV treatment and prevention services. Multidisciplinary, collaborative efforts are urgently needed to quantify these impacts, develop mitigation strategies, and strengthen policies and funding to bolster immune resilience for PLWH in the face of accelerating climate change.

Tackling debt, biodiversity loss, and climate change.

Experience tells us how to maximize debt-for-nature effectiveness.

Remotely sensed above-ground storage tank dataset for object detection and infrastructure assessment.

Remotely sensed imagery has increased dramatically in quantity and public availability. However, automated, large-scale analysis of such imagery is hindered by a lack of the annotations necessary to train and test machine learning algorithms. In this study, we address this shortcoming with respect to above-ground storage tanks (ASTs) that are used in a wide variety of industries.

Relating Antimicrobial Resistance and Virulence in Surface-Water .

The role of the environment in the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is being increasingly recognized, raising questions about the public health risks associated with environmental AMR. Yet, little is known about pathogenicity among resistant bacteria in environmental systems. Existing studies on the association between AMR and virulence are contradictory, as fitness costs and genetic co-occurrence can be opposing influences.

Urban nature visitation, accessibility, and impact of travel distance for sustainable cities.

Accessible urban nature is a key component of creating sustainable urban communities and promoting human health and well-being. To balance the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, the United Nations adopted several sustainable developmental goals (SDGs), such as SDG 11 for sustainable cities and communities, which aims to improve urban planning and management, including equitable access to urban nature. However, more information is still needed regarding how planners and managers can promote urban nature visitation and equitable access during health and environmental crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cleaning Up without Messing Up: Maximizing the Benefits of Plastic Clean-Up Technologies through New Regulatory Approaches.

As the global plastics crisis grows, numerous technologies have been invented and implemented to recover plastic pollution from the environment. Although laudable, unregulated clean-up technologies may be inefficient and have unintended negative consequences on ecosystems, for example, through bycatch or removal of organic matter important for ecosystem functions. Despite these concerns, plastic clean-up technologies can play an important role in reducing litter in the environment.

Higher Temperatures in Socially Vulnerable US Communities Increasingly Limit Safe Use of Electric Fans for Cooling.

As the globe warms, people will increasingly need affordable, safe methods to stay cool and minimize the worst health impacts of heat exposure. One of the cheapest cooling methods is electric fans. Recent research has recommended ambient air temperature thresholds for safe fan use in adults.

Climate, race, and the cost of capital in the municipal bond market.

Both climate risk and race are factors that may affect municipal bond yields, yet each has received relatively limited empirical research attention. We analyzed > 712,000 municipal bonds representing nearly 2 trillion USD in par outstanding, focusing on credit spread or the difference between a debt issuer's interest cost to borrow and a benchmark "risk-free" municipal rate. The relationship between credit spread and physical climate risk is significant and slightly positive, yet the coefficient indicates no meaningful spread penalty for increased physical climate risk.

Spatial analysis of aquatic food access can inform nutrition-sensitive policy.

Aquatic foods are critical for food and nutrition security in Malawi, but it is unclear which populations benefit from different aquatic foods and what factors shape food access. Spatial analysis of food flows across value chains from Lake Malawi to domestic consumers shows that usipa (Engraulicypris sardella) reaches more consumers than chambo (Oreochromis karongae) across all Malawi districts, particularly rural populations. Higher number of markets, nutrient content, and overall supply coupled with lower retail prices and volumes make usipa more accessible to consumers than chambo.

Voluntary commitments made by the world's largest companies focus on recycling and packaging over other actions to address the plastics crisis.

Plastic pollution has caused significant environmental and health challenges. Corporations that contribute to the make, use, and distribution of plastics can play a vital role in addressing global plastic pollution and many are committing to voluntary pledges. However, the extent to which corporation voluntary commitments are helping solve the problem remains underexplored.