20253 research outputs found
Sort by
Freedom and the Ethics of Plant-Based Diets in University Food Services
No full textA number of universities have implemented policies to increase the proportion of plant-based items offered by their food services as part of efforts to promote environmental sustainability and health. This article explores student freedom as an ethical issue in this context. Our central claim is that, while freedom is indeed an important ethical concern for university plant-based food initiatives, these efforts can avoid unjustifiably interfering with freedom if certain conditions are met. We suggest four criteria: (1) public messaging surrounding dietary choices should avoid stigmatizing meat-eating, (2) menus should retain some animal-source foods and ensure that plant-based substitutes included nutritionally fortified and whole food options, (3) the aggressiveness of the transition should be calibrated to student support, and (4) plant-based menu items should be appealing on their own terms
Environmental Impact of Machinery and Equipment: A Comparison between EXIOBASE, National Environmentally Extended Input–Output Models, and Ecoinvent
No full textEnvironmental impact assessments of machinery and equipment (ME) are constrained by process-based life cycle assessment (LCA) with limited system coverage and by aggregated top-down models with reduced representativeness. Lack of knowledge about consistency across these approaches hampers the understanding of ME impacts and policy making. This study quantifies greenhouse gas emission multipliers (cradle-to-gate emissions per unit production) of ME using data from process LCA (ecoinvent), national environmentally extended input-output (EEIO) models, and a multiregional EEIO model (EXIOBASE) for the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea, assessing variations, reliability, and compatibility. While EXIOBASE (seven ME sectors) and national EEIO data (32-102 sectors) broadly align, national EEIO models differ more in production technologies, with deviations from 100-fold lower to 3.7-fold higher than EXIOBASE results. Ecoinvent offers broad ME product-level coverage (∼390 sectors), especially for general and electrical ME, but with uneven representation and limited geographic differentiation. Its multipliers vary widely and often exceed EXIOBASE values, challenging the assumption that process-based LCA underestimates impacts due to truncation. Overall, our results reveal cross-model variation, confirm the relative reliability of EEIO data, point to limitations in ecoinvent, and underscore the need to link technical detail with global trade representation in ME modeling
Northern ecosystem productivity reduced by Rossby-wave-driven hot–dry conditions
No full textLarge-scale quasi-stationary Rossby waves in the tropospheric jet stream favour spatially compounding hot–dry and cold–wet weather across the northern hemisphere. However, how this circumglobal circulation pattern affects northern hemisphere ecosystem productivity remains unexplored. Here, using satellite proxies of vegetation photosynthesis, we assess the impact of Rossby wave-7 events during which the jet stream exhibits seven peaks and troughs and tends to produce prolonged weather anomalies. Our results show organized declines in vegetation productivity in warm cores and enhancement in cold cores at northern mid-latitudes during summer Rossby wave-7 events. Mid-latitude biomes within warm cores become much more susceptible to water limitations, resulting from an increased exposure to compound hot–dry (or cold–wet) extremes and a nonlinear physiological response to compound stressors. Of the warm cores analysed, wave events elevate the climatic risk of productivity declines by a factor of 8.3, 6.2 and 4.0 over western Europe, western Asia and the western United States, respectively, due to hot–dry extremes. In particular, 32–44% of the warm anomalies and 52–88% of the dry anomalies fall within the range of warmer–drier conditions projected for 2081–2100 by state-of-the-art climate models under a medium emissions scenario. Therefore, the observed Rossby-wave-driven impacts provide an indication of how a warmer–drier future climate could reduce the carbon uptake capacity of northern hemisphere ecosystems
Out of the black into the green? Modeling the pathways for regional coal transitions
No full textCoal is a major contributor to anthropogenic carbon emissions and climate change. Coal mining and combustion are also leading causes of premature mortality due to local air pollution. Conversely, coal is central to many regional economies that rely on its mining, power generation, industrial use and exports. With accelerating climate change and continuously high air pollution within many coal-centered economies, the urgency for coal phase-out has become more prominent in recent years. This has put pressure on coal-dependent regional economies to implement energy transitions in a time bound manner. This paper studies optimal pathways for a coal phase-out within a small, open, regional economy consisting of a coal extraction sector, an energy sector composed of both coal-based and renewable power generation, and a final goods sector that relies on coal and electricity. Taking the perspective of a social planner who maximizes regional welfare and employing optimal control theory, we study the conditions under which coal extraction and fossil power generation are phased out, depending on preferences, cost and price structures. We also provide a systematic analysis of the dynamic processes associated with the transition out of coal of (formerly) coal-based regional economies, including the scope for multiple equilibria that may reflect stalling transitions. Our results will be relevant for regional governments in undertaking a transition away from coal in a way that safeguards regional welfare and at the same time contributes to global climate goals
LAMASUS Land Use Management Data Set V2
No full textThe land use management classes developed as part of the LAMASUS project have been aggregated to a 1 km grid (INSPIRE) provided as three geopackages and NUTS2 regions, provided as shares in each grid cell and number of pixels in each region, respectively. The NUTS2 data can be joined to the NUTS2 shapefile (contained in NUTS0_2016_01M_3035_corrected.zip, including all NUTS levels), which is provided here as some corrections to the NUTS layer have been made. A list of the land use management classes is provided in the excel file. Note that these aggregated files are consistent with official statistics from the Forest Resources Assessment of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FRA-FAO) for forest areas and Eurostat for cropland and grassland areas.
This dataset has been created as part of LAMASUS Project under the scope of Deliverable 2.1 titled "The LUM Geodatabase and Area Estimates of Land Use Change to 2018 ". The data is directly linked to the work described on pages 12-34, belonging to section 3. The Land Use Management (LUM) Geodatabase. The full text of the deliverable can be accessed via: https://www.lamasus.eu/wp-content/uploads/LAMASUS_D2.1_LUMGeodatabase.pdf
Supplement [consisting of Supplement Information and Supplement Data] to Human-induced carbon stress power upon Earth: Integrated data set, rheological findings and consequences
No full textThe Supplement to the article Human-induced carbon stress power upon Earth: Integrated data set, rheological findings and consequences by Jonas et al. (2024) consists of two parts: (1) Supplement Information (SI) and (2) Supplement Data (SD). The two parts of the Supplement are made available to facilitate replicating the article’s findings. The Supplement Information (SI) consists of 12 sections; while the Supplement Data (SD), an Excel file, consists of 43 well-organized, fully commented worksheets
Repository for publication "Sharing emissions and removals for meeting the Paris Agreement through a distributive and corrective justice lens"
No full textThese datasets support the findings of the paper "Sharing emissions and removals for meeting the Paris Agreement through a distributive and corrective justice lens"
Annual European ecosystem land units from 2000 to 2018 at 100m
No full textAnnual layers of European Ecosystem land units (ELU) from 2000 to 2018 at 100 m are provided. Ecosystems, in this context are defined as intersections between macroclimatic conditions, landform, land cover and areal extent. The thematic legend of land cover is consistent with European Ecosystem Accounting, with the layers providing auxiliary information. Further, the underlying land cover time series is fully consistent with the Corine Accounting standard
WorldCereal crop calendars
No full textThis dataset contains the global crop calendar training and validation data used in the manuscript “Enhancing WorldCereal Crop Calendars with Land Surface Phenology and Machine Learning” (Moletto-Lobos et al., 2025). It includes harmonized reference crop calendar points derived from GEOGLAM Crop Monitor, USDA-FAS, JRC ASAP, and FAO sources, together with phenology-based samples retrieved from MODIS Aqua NDVI Land Surface Phenology (LSP) time series and ERA5-Land climate variables.
The dataset is organized into two main seasonal groups that follow the nomenclature used in the manuscript:
S1 = Winter crops (equivalent to winter cereals in the paper)
Includes reference and LSP-derived Start of Season (SOS) and End of Season (EOS) dates, including explicitly modeled dormancy periods.
S2 = Summer crops (equivalent to summer cropping systems in the paper)
Includes SOS and EOS samples for rainfed and monsoon-driven summer crops, corresponding to the “summer season” definition of the study