Publications

A just world on a safe planet: a Lancet Planetary Health–Earth Commission report on Earth-system boundaries, translations, and transformations

Publication ID: pub.1175661275

Publication date: 11/09/2024

The health of the planet and its people are at risk. The deterioration of the global commons—ie, the natural systems that support life on Earth—is exacerbating energy, food, and water insecurity, and increasing the risk of disease, disaster, displacement, and conflict. In this Commission, we quantify safe and just Earth-system boundaries (ESBs) and assess minimum […]

Five lessons for avoiding failure when scaling in conservation

Publication date: 06/09/2024

Many attempts to scale conservation actions have failed to deliver their intended benefits, caused unintended harm or later been abandoned, hampering efforts to bend the curve on biodiversity loss. Here we encourage those calling for scaling to pause and reflect on past scaling efforts, which offer valuable lessons: the total impact of an action depends […]

Green spaces provide substantial but unequal urban cooling globally

Publication date: 02/09/2024

Climate warming disproportionately impacts countries in the Global South by increasing extreme heat exposure. However, geographic disparities in adaptation capacity are unclear. Here, we assess global inequality in green spaces, which urban residents critically rely on to mitigate outdoor heat stress. We use remote sensing data to quantify daytime cooling by urban greenery in the […]

Anticipating the global redistribution of people and property

Publication ID: pub.1173935607

Publication date: 20/07/2024

Climate change will worsen conditions for people in the Global South, while conditions in large parts of the North will improve. Migration seems an effective adaptation strategy. However, making that a win-win for migrants and receiving communities requires revision of the food system, rules for mobility, and strategies for social integration.

Optimizing restoration: A holistic spatial approach to deliver Nature’s Contributions to People with minimal tradeoffs and maximal equity

Publication date: 05/07/2024

Delivery of ecosystem restoration plans can lead to gains and losses of environmental and societal benefits, disproportionately impacting different groups of society. The tradeoffs and inequity can potentially be large when considering plans focused on a single benefit. Such information is especially lacking in tropical countries, such as India, that must balance local societal needs […]

Substantial cooling effect from aerosol-induced increase in tropical marine cloud cover

Publication ID: pub.1170623061

Publication date: 11/04/2024

With global warming currently standing at approximately +1.2 °C since pre-industrial times, climate change is a pressing global issue. Marine cloud brightening is one proposed method to tackle warming through injecting aerosols into marine clouds to enhance their reflectivity and thereby planetary albedo. However, because it is unclear how aerosols influence clouds, especially cloud cover, both […]