Sustainability in a changing world: integrating human health and wellbeing, urbanisation, and ecosystem services

There is an urgent need to address interlinked sustainability issues in a world challenged by inequality, finite resources and unprecedented changes across Earth’s systems. As Future Earth Fellows, based on our collective expertise in a diverse range of sustainability issues, here we identify a specific need to recognise and respond appropriately to the nexus between human health and wellbeing, urbanisation, and ecosystem services (the ‘WUE nexus’). This nexus is a priority area for research, policy and practice. In particular, it provides a useful pathway to meet the challenges of successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this brief, we present the following policy recommendations:1. By emphasising urban-rural linkages, foster an integrated approach to ensure food security, food safety, and health promotion;2. Secure resilient livelihoods for all, in particular for vulnerable groups; and3. Integrate co-production of knowledge in science for decision-making, including the co-design of implementation frameworks, and the adoption of a nexus approach.<br/

SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY OF PARTICLE BOUND INSECTICIDES IN A TEMPORARILY OPEN ESTUARY AN EXPOSURE AND EFFECT ASSESSMENT

“…….The paradox between attempting to analyze “too much ” information and still not having enough – although frustrating – should not be discoursing, for this will lead to eventual acknowledgement by our administrators that complex problems do not have simple solutions. This is progress. Biology without pollution is intricate, exacting and dynamic, while biology compounded by a single source of pollution may at times be overwhelming. Thus, biology with multiple-variable pollutants demands extraordinary insight as well as foresight into placing the problems into perspective…..

1st Young Environmental Scientists (YES) meeting : new challenges in environmental sciences

The 1st Young Environmental Scientists (YES) Meeting took place in March (16–18) 2009 at the Institute for Environmental Sciences at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Landau Campus, Germany. These special students only conference was organised under the umbrella of Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Europe by its Student Advisory Council (SAC). The SAC represents student members (master, diploma or Ph.D.) throughout every level of SETAC and provides additional advice, recommendations and new initiatives to the SETAC Europe Council. Aimed at an active participation of students in scientific meetings, the structure of usual SETAC Europe annual meetings was filled with innovative ideas to foster essential skills and to support the progress of the student’s (scientific) career. Besides the acquisition of funding, a barrier students have to overcome is getting in contact with other scientists and thus build up their personal network, which is fundamental for scientific progress. Among others, the SAC addressed these issues