Volume 8 Issue 5, May 2025

Only a holistic approach can help to mitigate the intensified global systemic environmental risks under climate change.

At a time when the world must cut greenhouse gas emissions precipitously, artificial intelligence (AI) brings large opportunities and large risks. To address its uncertain environmental impact, we propose the ‘Earth alignment’ principle to guide AI development and deployment towards planetary stability.

Managing medical waste, and more generally solid waste, was extremely challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic, with cities around the world responding quite differently. Now researchers show how having access to reliable data often determined a city’s response to the pandemic-induced waste crisis.

Evaluating the short-term exposure to wildfire-specific fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) showed greater risks of hospitalization for all major respiratory diseases than non-wildfire PM_2.5. When developing air quality guidelines, it is also important to consider that PM_2.5 from varying sources can have different health effects, which require targeted health and environmental policy approaches.

Wildfires are becoming increasingly frequent in several regions around the world due to climate change, posing serious health risks, especially for respiratory diseases. This study examines the respiratory health risk and burden of wildfire-specific PM_2.5 pollution across eight countries and territories.

The benefits and risks of nature to human health have been studied, however, robust empirical research on forest biodiversity and health outcomes is still lacking. Here the authors use a unique dataset from 164 European forest stands to explore the associations between forest types and well-being.

The long-spined sea urchin has colonized areas along the Tasmanian coast owing to climate-induced changes in ocean currents, forming barrens that threaten marine species. This study shows how a government-supported strategy of overfishing this sea urchin could help conservation and fisheries outcomes.

Catalytic syngas conversion is an essential part of sustainable chemical production but is hindered by the trade-off between conversion activity and product selectivity. Here the authors address this challenge by developing a catalytic shunt strategy.

Current battery recycling processes face sustainability challenges. Using gas evolution in water electrolysis, this work realizes fast separation of active electrode materials from current collectors before their dry refabrication for electrodes without compromising performance.

Anode-free sodium metal batteries without excess sodium achieve high energy density and low cost, but their cycling stability remains poor. Here an optimized current collector interphase enables unprecedented cyclability and energy density.

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is a green oxidant with diverse applications. Aided by a nickel phosphorus trisulfide nanosheet electrocatalyst, this work shows a sustainable synthetic route to produce H₂O₂ from seawater with high yield and impressive stability.

It is extremely difficult to separate tritium from radioactively contaminated water. Here the authors introduce catalytic hydrogen isotope exchange to water distillation, realizing excellent detritiation performance.

Analysis of medical waste (MW) generated and disposed of during the COVID-19 pandemic can help develop better MW management in the future. This study presents a city-level dataset on MW generation and disposal capacity during the pandemic across China, and a model to identify disposal strategies.