PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Path to prosperity for planet and people if Earth’s critical resources are better shared: report

2024-09-11
(Press-News.org) Earth will only remain able to provide even a basic standard of living for everyone in the future if economic systems and technologies are dramatically transformed and critical resources are more fairly used, managed and shared, according to an international research team including scientists from The Australian National University (ANU).

The report, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, outlines how cities and businesses have the power to play a crucial role and become the “stewards” of critical Earth systems by demonstrating how they can reduce their environmental impact on the planet. The report summarises key findings of phase one of Earth Commission, founded in 2019 with a team of 18 globally esteemed interdisciplinary scholars as commissioners, involving more than 40 researchers in various working groups.

The report builds on the Safe and Just Earth System Boundaries report published in Nature last year, which found that most of the vital limits within which people and the planet can thrive have been surpassed.

One of three lead authors, Distinguished Professor Xuemei Bai, from ANU, who led the working group on Translation, said that companies and cities have the means to act and drastically transform and reduce pressure on the planet.

“Companies and cities have a huge potential to make a difference, especially if they work towards the same goal, which is to ensure the planet can provide for everyone long-term,” she said.

“They are more nimble and flexible than states, and can reduce their pressure on the planet by setting science-based targets in line with our findings.”

Professor Stuart Bunn, from Griffith University, co-led one of the working groups, which focused on the boundaries of freshwater and nutrient pollution.

The report found the planet’s ability to provide and protect is being stretched past its limits, although it remains possible for humans to escape poverty and harm caused by Earth’s system change, if urgent action is taken.

It found the only way to provide for everyone and ensure societies, businesses and economies thrive without destabilising the planet is to reduce inequalities in how critical Earth system resources, such as freshwater and nutrients, are accessed and used, and how responsibilities, such as reducing carbon emission, are shared, alongside economic and technological transformation.

By 2050, unless urgent transformations are made, the researchers argue that Earth’s climate will deteriorate to the point where there will be no “safe and just space” left.

That means that even if everyone on the planet only had access to the resources necessary for a basic standard of living in 2050, the Earth would still be outside the climate boundary.

The researchers say earth systems face the risk of crossing dangerous tipping points, which would cause further significant harm to people around the world unless energy, food and urban systems are urgently transformed.

The paper outlines a series of recommendations to ensure Earth’s climate remains within this so-called “safe and just space”.

• Firstly, a well-coordinated, intentional effort between policymakers, businesses, civil society and communities can push for changes in how we run the economy and find new policies and funding mechanisms that can address inequality whilst reducing pressure on nature and climate.

• Secondly, fundamental to the transformation is more efficient and effective management, sharing and usage of resources at every level of society including addressing the excess consumption of some communities, which limits access to basic resources for those who need them the most.

• Thirdly, investment in sustainable and affordable technologies is essential to help us use fewer resources and to reopen the safe and just space for all, particularly where there is little or no space left.

The report has been published in The Lancet Planetary Health. It is co-authored by more than 60 leading natural and social scientists from across the globe.

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Long-course radiotherapy is better than short-course for organ preservation in rectal cancer

Long-course radiotherapy is better than short-course for organ preservation in rectal cancer
2024-09-11
The COVID-19 pandemic has enabled researchers to show that a long course of radiotherapy given before surgery may be a better treatment for avoiding surgery, preserving the rectum and anus, and preventing regrowth of the primary tumour than a short course of radiotherapy for patients with rectal cancer – a type of bowel cancer. However, the overall survival and survival free of recurrence of the disease remained the same for both treatments.   These findings are from a new study published in ...

Large-scale population analysis confirms reassuring safety profile of tirzepatide

2024-09-11
As more people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) are taking medications to help manage blood sugar levels and weight loss, concerns about whether these drugs are safe have emerged. Now real-world evidence from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database reveals a reassuring safety profile for tirzepatide (TZP). The findings to be presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), Madrid (9-13 Sept), and published in the The Journal of Endocrinological Investigation (link below) reveal that, compared to the widely used class of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), TZP has similar gastrointestinal ...

Tirzepatide associated with greater weight loss in women than men

2024-09-11
All doses of tirzepatide, a medication approved in the EU to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity, consistently reduced body weight in women and men, but women experienced greater weight loss, according to new post hoc research to be presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), Madrid (9-13 Sept). The post hoc analysis, which included the four SURMOUNT trials [1], compared tirzepatide with a placebo for up to 72 to 88 weeks in 4,677 adults (2,999 females, 1,678 males) living with obesity, highlighting potential sex differences in the response. Tirzepatide, a once-weekly glucose-dependent ...

Rapid control of blood sugar levels in women with gestational diabetes can reverse the risk of their children developing obesity, US study finds

2024-09-11
Swiftly achieving glycaemic control after a diagnosis of gestational diabetes can bring the baby’s risk obesity in childhood down to a level similar to that of children whose mothers did not have gestational diabetes, new research being presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Madrid, Spain (9-13 September), has found. Gestational diabetes, a type of diabetes that can develop during pregnancy, affects 14% of pregnant women globally and is becoming more common, with those who are living with obesity, have a family ...

Semaglutide’s cardiovascular benefits are maintained in people with impaired kidney function

2024-09-11
The anti-obesity medication semaglutide may help to prevent heart attacks, strokes, and other major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) as well as death in adults with overweight or obesity who don’t have diabetes, whether or not they also have impaired kidney function, according to new research to be presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), Madrid (9-13 Sept). The results are based on a pre-specified analysis of the SELECT trial which found that adults with overweight or obesity but not diabetes taking semaglutide for more than 3 years had a 20% lower risk of MACE or ...

Study reveals key predictors for achieving and sustaining blood glucose control and weight loss with tirzepatide in adults with type 2 diabetes

2024-09-11
The phase 3 SURPASS-4 trial published in 2021 established that tirzepatide lowers blood sugar and supports weight loss better than insulin glargine (a long-acting insulin) for type 2 diabetes (T2D) [1]. Now new research examining a broad range of potential predictors of sustaining blood sugar control and weight loss indicates that greater weight loss, better β-cell function, and a greater decrease in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C or “bad cholesterol”) during the first year of tirzepatide therapy are the most ...

Avian flu found in wastewater of 10 Texas cities through virome sequencing by researchers at UTHealth Houston and Baylor College of Medicine

Avian flu found in wastewater of 10 Texas cities through virome sequencing by researchers at UTHealth Houston and Baylor College of Medicine
2024-09-11
Avian influenza A(H5N1) virus, which spread to cattle and infected 14 people this year, was detected using virome sequencing in the wastewater of 10 Texas cities by researchers at UTHealth Houston and Baylor College of Medicine. The virome is the collection of viruses in a sample, in this case a wastewater sample. The information was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Until March 2024, H5N1 had not been detected in 1,337 wastewater samples analyzed by the team. But from March 4 to July 15 (the end of data collection for this article), H5N1 was ...

Culturing muscle cells

Culturing muscle cells
2024-09-11
Harvard stem cell biologists have pioneered a groundbreaking 3D organoid culture method for generating large numbers of adult skeletal muscle satellite cells, also known as muscle stem cells, in vitro. The ability to efficiently make functional muscle stem cells in this way is expected to accelerate understanding of and treatments for disorders of skeletal muscle, including those that are neuromuscular in origin. The new technique, detailed in Nature Biotechnology, also provides a powerful tool for studying muscle biology. "People will be able to do all these engraftment and regeneration experiments because suddenly, you have millions of cells,” said co-author and Harvard research ...

ORNL debuts convergent manufacturing platform at IMTS 2024

ORNL debuts convergent manufacturing platform at IMTS 2024
2024-09-11
A new convergent manufacturing platform, developed in only five months at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is debuting at the International Manufacturing Technology Show, or IMTS, in Chicago, Sept. 9–12, 2024. The technology, called Future Foundries, opens the door for hundreds of thousands of small- and medium-sized companies to join the convergent manufacturing revolution, according to ORNL researchers. It is a cutting-edge platform that integrates multiple advanced manufacturing systems into a single, agile platform. “The democratization ...

New insights could help prevent psychosis relapses in youth and young adults

2024-09-11
New findings from McGill University researchers could help clinicians understand the course of delusions in youth and young adults that signal the need for a timely intervention to prevent a full relapse of psychosis. Delusions — strong beliefs that don't align with commonly accepted reality— are a defining symptom of psychosis but are not sufficiently understood. For the first time, researchers studied whether delusion themes, such as paranoia or grandiosity, stay the same or shift between psychotic episodes in youth and young adults undergoing early intervention treatment. The importance of timely ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Workforce diversity is key to advancing One Health

Genome Research publishes a special issue on innovations in computational biology

A quick and easy way to produce anode materials for sodium-ion batteries using microwaves

‘Inside-out’ galaxy growth observed in the early universe

Protein blocking bone development could hold clues for future osteoporosis treatment

A new method makes high-resolution imaging more accessible

Tiny magnetic discs offer remote brain stimulation without transgenes

Illuminating quantum magnets: Light unveils magnetic domains

Different types of teenage friendships critical to wellbeing as we age, scientists find

Hawaii distillery project wins funding from Scottish brewing and distilling award

Trinity researchers find ‘natural killer’ cells that live in the lung are ready for a sugar rush

$7 Million from ARPA-H to tackle lung infections through innovative probiotic treatment

Breakdancers may risk ‘headspin hole’ caused by repetitive headspins, doctors warn

Don’t rely on AI chatbots for accurate, safe drug information, patients warned

Nearly $10M investment will expand and enhance stroke care in Minnesota, South Dakota

Former Georgia, Miami coach Mark Richt named 2025 Paul “Bear” Bryant Heart of a Champion

$8.1M grant will allow researchers to study the role of skeletal stem cells in craniofacial bone diseases and deformities

Northwestern to promote toddler mental health with $11.7 million NIMH grant

A new study finds that even positive third-party ratings can have negative effects

Optimizing inhibitors that fight antibiotic resistance

New Lancet Commission calls for urgent action on self-harm across the world

American Meteorological Society launches free content for weather enthusiasts with “Weather Band”

Disrupting Asxl1 gene prevents T-cell exhaustion, improving immunotherapy

How your skin tone could affect your meds

NEC Society, Cincinnati Children's, and UNC Children’s announce NEC Symposium in Chicago

Extreme heat may substantially raise mortality risk for people experiencing homelessness

UTA professor earns NSF grants to study human-computer interaction

How playing songs to Darwin’s finches helped UMass Amherst biologists confirm link between environment and the emergence of new species

A holy grail found for catalytic alkane activation

Galápagos finches could be singing a different song after repeated drought—one that leads to speciation

[Press-News.org] Path to prosperity for planet and people if Earth’s critical resources are better shared: report