Attitudes to in vitro meat:A survey of potential consumers in the United States

Positivity towards meat consumption remains strong, despite evidence of negative environmental and ethical outcomes. Although awareness of these repercussions is rising, there is still public resistance to removing meat from our diets. One potential method to alleviate these effects is to produce in vitro meat: meat grown in a laboratory that does not carry the same environmental or ethical concerns. However, there is limited research examining public attitudes towards in vitro meat, thus we know little about the capacity for it be accepted by consumers. This study aimed to examine perceptions of in vitro meat and identify potential barriers that might prevent engagement. Through conducting an online survey with US participants, we identified that although most respondents were willing to try in vitro meat, only one third were definitely or probably willing to eat in vitro meat regularly or as a replacement for farmed meat. Men were more receptive to it than women, as were politically liberal respondents compared with conservative ones. Vegetarians and vegans were more likely to perceive benefits compared to farmed meat, but they were less likely to want to try it than meat eaters. The main concerns were an anticipated high price, limited taste and appeal and a concern that the product was unnatural. It is concluded that people in the USA are likely to try in vitro meat, but few believed that it would replace farmed meat in their diet

Trees, forests and water: Cool insights for a hot world

Forest-driven water and energy cycles are poorly integrated into regional, national, continental and global decision-making on climate change adaptation, mitigation, land use and water management. This constrains humanity’s ability to protect our planet’s climate and life-sustaining functions. The substantial body of research we review reveals that forest, water and energy interactions provide the foundations for carbon storage, for cooling terrestrial surfaces and for distributing water resources. Forests and trees must be recognized as prime regulators within the water, energy and carbon cycles. If these functions are ignored, planners will be unable to assess, adapt to or mitigate the impacts of changing land cover and climate. Our call to action targets a reversal of paradigms, from a carbon-centric model to one that treats the hydrologic and climate-cooling effects of trees and forests as the first order of priority. For reasons of sustainability, carbon storage must remain a secondary, though valuable, by-product. The effects of tree cover on climate at local, regional and continental scales offer benefits that demand wider recognition. The forest- and tree-centered research insights we review and analyze provide a knowledge-base for improving plans, policies and actions. Our understanding of how trees and forests influence water, energy and carbon cycles has important implications, both for the structure of planning, management and governance institutions, as well as for how trees and forests might be used to improve sustainability, adaptation and mitigation efforts

Ramucirumab plus docetaxel versus placebo plus docetaxel in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma after platinum-based therapy (RANGE): a randomised, double-blind, phase 3 trial

Few treatments with a distinct mechanism of action are available for patients with platinum-refractory advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma. We assessed the efficacy and safety of treatment with docetaxel plus either ramucirumab-a human IgG1 VEGFR-2 antagonist-or placebo in this patient population

Mapping and linking supply- and demand-side measures in climate-smart agriculture. A review

Climate change and food security are two of humanity’s greatest challenges and are highly interlinked. On the one hand, climate change puts pressure on food security. On the other hand, farming significantly contributes to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. This calls for climate-smart agriculture—agriculture that helps to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Climate-smart agriculture measures are diverse and include emission reductions, sink enhancements, and fossil fuel offsets for mitigation. Adaptation measures include technological advancements, adaptive farming practices, and financial management. Here, we review the potentials and trade-offs of climate-smart agricultural measures by producers and consumers. Our two main findings are as follows: (1) The benefits of measures are often site-dependent and differ according to agricultural practices (e.g., fertilizer use), environmental conditions (e.g., carbon sequestration potential), or the production and consumption of specific products (e.g., rice and meat). (2) Climate-smart agricultural measures on the supply side are likely to be insufficient or ineffective if not accompanied by changes in consumer behavior, as climate-smart agriculture will affect the supply of agricultural commodities and require changes on the demand side in response. Such linkages between demand and supply require simultaneous policy and market incentives. It, therefore, requires interdisciplinary cooperation to meet the twin challenge of climate change and food security. The link to consumer behavior is often neglected in research but regarded as an essential component of climate-smart agriculture. We argue for not solely focusing research and implementation on one-sided measures but designing good, site-specific combinations of both demand- and supply-side measures to use the potential of agriculture more effectively to mitigate and adapt to climate change

Areas of rapid forest-cover change in boreal Eurasia

Changes in forest cover have become recognized as an important global environmental issue. This article presents a synthesis of what is known about areas of rapid forest-cover change in boreal Eurasia from the end of the 1990s, based on data compiled from expert opinion and remote sensing data. The broad geographic patterns of rapid forest-cover change have been mapped at regional scale with the characterization of the main causes and drivers of these changes. Around 40 million ha of rapid change areas with clear-cutting activities and 70 million ha with increased fire frequency are depicted. The main processes of rapid forest-cover changes in boreal Eurasia are logging and increase of fire frequency. Ancillary processes are forest conversion for built over area or dam construction, forest regrowths and conversion of bogs. This study revealed that human influence on the Russian forest landscape has been growing over recent decades, mainly as a consequence of logging activities and human-induced fires, with in particular: (i) clear cuts; (ii) high intensity selective logging; (iii) increased fire frequency. Rapid land-cover change is not randomly or uniformly distributed but is clustered in some locations, e.g., high intensity logging mostly takes place in the European part of Russia (e.g., in the Karelian Isthmus) and along the Southern border of the Taiga. Except for forest regrowths on abandoned agricultural land in the southern Taiga, all other processes lead to the decrease of forest cover or to its degradation. Logging activities are driven by regular timber harvesting and irregular cutting for public revenue or individual profit in response to growing demand in national and international markets, particularly in China and Japan. Forest degradation in Siberia, mostly related to increase of fire frequency and development of logging activities, is extending rapidly. Annual forest-cover change rates in areas identified as rapid change areas may range from 0.26% for diffuse logging activities to around 0.65% for areas affected by intense clear-cutting activities, up to 2.3% for areas affected by fires or a combination of fires and logging. While this approach does not directly lead to quantified estimates of forest-cover changes, it highlights those areas where intensive monitoring would be devised for an improved estimation of the changes at continental scale. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. [References: 42

Identification of Hot Spot Areas of Forest Cover Changes in Boreal Eurasia

An expert consultation was held in 2004 at the initiative of the Joint Research Centre to identify areas of current and potential rapid forest cover change in boreal Eurasia with the characterization of the main drivers of these changes. The resulting hot spot; regional maps (Boreal European and Siberian regions) are presented in this study. The evidence on which the areas were designated was based on the personal experiences of the contacted experts. Information on potential criteria for an automated delineation and stratification at a broad scale was also collected.JRC.H.3-Global environement monitorin