Did Electric Vehicle Sales Skyrocket Due to Increased Environmental Awareness While Total Vehicle Sales Declined during COVID-19?

Since the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has posed a global threat to humankind. In addition to many cases of illness and millions of deaths, the economy has suffered. Not surprisingly, vehicle sales have declined sharply in most countries by up to 25%. However, the overall sales of electric vehicles (EVs) did not stall; instead, they increased to previously forecasted levels. Is this increase evidence that COVID-19 has promoted sustainable action and strengthened environmental awareness, as researchers have discussed in recently published articles? Or is this merely the effect of monetary incentives by governments, as has been demonstrated in scientific research? This study examines the causes behind the surprising continuous climb of EV sales despite the outbreak of the pandemic by contrasting the influence of COVID-19 on environmental concerns and the usual monetary incentives with their potential complementary effects.

ARQUITECTURAS REINVENTADAS. HOTELES SOSTENIBLES EN CONSTRUCCIONES INDUSTRIALES

Se realiza en este trabajo un recorrido por restos industriales en desuso reconvertidos en hoteles, evidenciándose que la reutilización de estos viejos contenedores para nuevos usos turísticos ha servido por una parte para recuperar patrimonio, mientras por otra se logra una actuación sostenible que evita el despilfarro que supone la nueva construcción. No obstante, queda de relieve también la paradoja de actuaciones de rehabilitación, donde la reutilización puede conllevar un deterioro ambiental, pese a la recuperación patrimonial que en principio supone. This work includes a tour of disused industrial remains transformed into hotels, It is evident that the reuse of these old containers in order to new tourist uses has helped on the one hand to recover heritage, while on the other hand a sustainable action is achieved and it avoids the waste that implies the new construction. However, the paradox of rehabilitation actions is also highlighted, where reuse can lead to environmental deterioration, despite the recovery of heritage that initially it means.

Sustainable Palm Oil and Landscape Program

Palm oil is a commodity with a significant land area development. Thus, raises concerns about its impact on the landscape. This study uses a case study in South Tapanuli, a center of smallholder oil palm plantations with a high conservation value and an action plan for a sustainable palm oil program. This study uses a combination of a desk study of government publications and interviews with key stakeholders. The results show that the sustainable palm oil program can affect landscape sustainability through regional development and spatial plans. The sustainable action plan has altered strategic issues in the regional development plan by focusing on oil palm plantations management in forest areas. However, the strategic issues have has not been followed up by targets and programs. Coordination between the central and regional governments is lacking, and related local government organizations do not fully understand the plan. The annual plan has been completed with sufficiently detailed outputs and thus cannot use it as a reference for evaluating achievement stages. Therefore, although the sustainable palm oil program positively impacts regional planning in South Tapanuli, it still needs to be followed up by operationalization in synergistic programs.

Can Broadband Support Environmental Sustainability? An Exploration of Claims at the Household Level

This paper looks at the ways in which broadband networks can support sustainability, focusing on the actions of individual consumers in Australia. It centres on the arguments that broadband can be used to substitute physical products with digital ones, and to substitute physical activities (like travel) with digital ones (like videoconferencing and telework). Data on current broadband availability, uptake and usage in Australia are presented. The idea that broadband technologies are currently taken up in ways that encourage sustainable action is challenged, noting that average users are not yet sufficiently interested in, or comfortable with broadband technologies to act in ways that enable sustainability. Recognising that broadband networks do have the potential to encourage sustainability at the household level, the paper identifies current constraints and offers some suggestions on mitigating them.

Detection of Bacterial Pathogens in Ready-To-Eat Foods: Potential Public Health Hazard

The right to obtain safe food is one of the most vital and fundamental human rights that must not be compromised or neglected; this is important because foodborne diseases can lead to prolonged disability and even death. Our study examined 28 samples of ready-to-eat foods, of which 27 samples (96.4%), contained bacterial contaminants. The bacterial pathogens isolated include Escherichia coli (50%), Salmonella spp (75%) and Staphylococcus aureus (85.7%). All the samples of jollof rice (100%), bean porride (100%) and eba (100%) were contaminated while 85.7% of egusi soup samples contained bacterial contaminants. The presence of these bacterial pathogens in the ready-to-eat foods poses huge risk to public health. It calls for immediate and sustainable action to prevent the possibility of foodborne disease out-break and intoxication capable of harming public health and socio-economic development.

Compound vulnerabilities exacerbate systemic risks of food security in Somalia

The impacts of climate change are increasingly compounding around the world. Simultaneous extreme weather events threaten coping mechanisms such as migration, and food security in breadbasket regions. Systemic risk approaches offer a critical lens to guide risk-informed sustainable action both now, and in the future. This Analysis proposes a generic conceptual framework to address the nature of such risks. We combine data on weather-related displacement, food insecurity, and conflict to characterize compound vulnerabilities underlying systemic risks. Using an Systemic Risk Impact Pathways (SRIP) model, we illustrate intersections between systemic risk elements and compound vulnerabilities in Somalia, a country affected by recurring extreme weather, protracted armed conflict, political instability and displacement. We show how these dynamics have create a complex nexus of strains on the population and its ability to guarantee food security. Advancing a risk-informed sustainable development agenda, we recommend taking a systemic risk approach instead of a single hazard approach.

Anticipated and experienced positive affect shape sustainable action in everyday life

Emotions are powerful drivers of human behavior that may make people aware of the urgency to act to mitigate climate change and provide a motivational basis to engage in sustainable action. However, attempts to leverage emotions via climate communications have yielded unsatisfactory results, with many interventions failing to produce the desired behaviors. Considering emotions as simple behavioral levers without considering differences in the underlying affective mechanisms may not optimally exploit their potential to promote sustainable action. Across two field experiments, here we show that individual predispositions to experience positive emotions in an environmental context (trait affect) predict pro-environmental actions and corresponding shifts in affective states (towards personal as well as witnessed pro-environmental actions). Moreover, trait affect predicts the individual behavioral impact of emotion-based intervention strategies from positive environmental messages. These findings have important implications for the targeted design of affect-based interventions aiming to promote sustainable behavior.

Can Broadband Support Environmental Sustainability?: an Exploration of Claims at the Household Level

This paper looks at the ways in which broadband networks can support sustainability, focusing on the actions of individual consumers in Australia. It centres on the arguments that broadband can be used to substitute physical products with digital ones, and to substitute physical activities (like travel) with digital ones (like videoconferencing and telework). Data on current broadband availability, uptake and usage in Australia are presented. The idea that broadband technologies are currently taken up in ways that encourage sustainable action is challenged, noting that average users are not yet sufficiently interested in, or comfortable with broadband technologies to act in ways that enable sustainability. Recognising that broadband networks do have the potential to encourage sustainability at the household level, the paper identifies current constraints and offers some suggestions on mitigating them.

Surveillance data for human leishmaniasis indicate the need for a sustainable action plan for its management and control, Greece, 2004 to 2018

Background The World Health Organization (WHO) lists human leishmaniasis as a neglected tropical disease; it is not under surveillance at European level. Aim We present surveillance data for visceral (VL) and cutaneous (CL) leishmaniasis for the period 2004 to 2018 in Greece to assess their public health importance. Methods We extracted data from the mandatory notification system to analyse separately imported and domestic cases of VL and CL. A case was defined by clinical manifestations compatible with VL or CL and laboratory confirmation. Results Between 2004 and 2018, 881 VL (862 domestic, 19 imported) and 58 CL cases (24 domestic, 34 imported) were recorded. The mean annual notification rate of domestic VL was 0.5 per 100,000 (range: 0.12–1.43/100,000) with a statistically significant increasing trend (p = 0.013). Cases were reported by all regions. The highest notification rate occurred in the age group 0–4 years (1.3/100,000). Overall 24% (164/680) of the cases were immunocompromised and their proportion increased after 2010 (p < 0.001). The mean annual notification rate of domestic CL was 0.05 per 100,000 (range: 0.01–0.19/100,000) with the highest rate in the age group 5–14 years (0.03/100,000). Cases were recorded in six of the 13 regions. Among 34 imported CL cases, 29 were foreign nationals. Conclusion VL is endemic in Greece, with an increasing trend and a considerable burden of severe disease and young children being most affected. CL is rarely reported. A sustainable action plan is needed to reduce the burden of VL and prevent local transmission of CL.