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The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) rest on a set of broadly accepted values within a human rights framework. The SDGs seek to improve human lives, improve the planet, and foster prosperity. This paper examines the human rights framework and the principles of social justice and shows that, while the SDGs do not specifically state that there is human right to food, the SDGs do envision a better, more just, world which rests upon the sufficiency of the global food supply, on environmental sustainability, and on food security for all. Then the paper examines the interrelationships between the SDGs, food access and waste, and human rights within a framework of social justice. Finally, it looks at the potential pandemic of hunger wrought by COVID-19, showing that COVID-19 serves as an example of a crisis that has raised unprecedented challenges to food loss and waste in the global food supply system and tests our commitment to the principles espoused by the SDGs.

This article examines outstanding “sustainable” skyscrapers that received international recognition, including LEED certification. It identifies vital green features in each building and summarizes the prominent elements for informing future projects. Overall, this research is significant because, given the mega-scale of skyscrapers, any improvement in their design, engineering, and construction will have mega impacts and major savings (e.g., structural materials, potable water, energy, etc.). Therefore, the extracted design elements, principles, and recommendations from the reviewed case studies are substantial. Further, the article debates controversial design elements such as wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, glass skin, green roofs, aerodynamic forms, and mixed-use schemes. Finally, it discusses greenwashing and the impact of COVID-19 on sustainable design.

This study surveyed consumers in Fayetteville, Arkansas to assess their perceptions of plastic-free food packaging. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, surveys were administered via email to Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences undergraduate students and faculty at the University of Arkansas. Eleven questions were asked in the survey. Numerical values were assigned to each answer option in order to interpret the results. The factors impacting consumer decisions to purchase foods packaged with or without plastic were ranked from greatest to least: sanitation/safety, availability where shopping, cost, shelf-life, and convenience. Food packaging materials were ranked from most to least likely to purchase by the participants: cardboard, plastic, glass, paper, aluminum/steel, then styrofoam.

Introduction: During the COVID-19 lockdown significant improvements in urban air quality were detected due to the absence of motorized vehicles. It is crucial to perpetuate such improvements to maintain and improve public health simultaneously. Therefore, this exploratory study approached bicycle infrastructure in the case of Munich (Germany) to find out which specific bicycle lanes meet the demands of its users, how such infrastructure looks like, and which characteristics are potentially important. Methods: To identify patterns of bicycle infrastructure in Munich exploratory data is collected over the timespan of three consecutive weeks in August by a bicycle rider at different times of the day. We measure position, time, velocity, pulse, level of sound, temperature and humidity. In the next step, we qualitatively identified different segments and applied a cluster analysis to quantitatively describe those segments regarding the measured factors. The data allows us to identify which bicycle lanes have a particular set of measurements, indicating a favorable construction for bike riders. Results: In the exploratory dataset, five relevant segment clusters are identified: viscous, slow, inconsistent, accelerating, and best-performance. The segments that are identified as best-performance enable bicycle riders to travel efficiently and safely at amenable distances in urban areas. They are characterized by their width, little to no interaction with motorized traffic as well as pedestrians, and effective traffic light control. Discussion: We propose two levels of discussion: (1) revolves around what kind of bicycles lanes from the case study can help to increase bicycle usage in urban areas, while simultaneously improving public health and mitigating climate change challenges and (2) discussing the possibilities, limitations and necessary improvements of this kind of exploratory methodology.

AbstractBackgroundThis study characterized the prevalence, drinking patterns, and sociodemographic characteristics of U.S. adult subpopulations with distinct drinking trajectories during the COVID‐19 pandemic's first 42 weeks.MethodsAdult respondents (n = 8130) in a nationally representative prospective longitudinal study completed 21 biweekly web surveys (March 2020 to January 2021). Past‐week alcohol drinking frequency (drinking days [range: 0 to 7]) and intensity (binge drinking on usual past‐week drinking day [yes/no]) were assessed at each timepoint. Growth mixture models identified multiple subpopulations with homogenous drinking trajectories based on mean drinking days or binge drinking proportional probabilities across time.ResultsFour drinking frequency trajectories were identified: Minimal/stable (72.8% [95% CI = 71.8 to 73.8]) with <1 mean past‐week drinking days throughout; Moderate/late decreasing (6.7% [95% CI = 6.2 to 7.3) with 3.13 mean March drinking days and reductions during summer, reaching 2.12 days by January 2021; Moderate/early increasing (12.9% [95% CI = 12.2 to 13.6) with 2.13 mean March drinking days that increased in April and then plateaued, ending with 3.20 mean days in January 2021; and Near daily/early increasing (7.6% [95% CI = 7.0 to 8.2]) with 5.58 mean March drinking days that continued increasing without returning to baseline. Four drinking intensity trajectories were identified: Minimal/stable (85.8% [95% CI = 85.0% to 86.5%]) with <0.01 binge drinking probabilities throughout; Low‐to‐moderate/fluctuating (7.4% [95% CI = 6.8% to 8%]) with varying binge probabilities across timepoints (range:0.12 to 0.26); Moderate/mid increasing (4.2% [95% CI = 3.7% to 4.6%]) with 0.39 April binge drinking probability rising to 0.65 during August–September without returning to baseline; High/early increasing trajectory (2.7% [95% CI = 2.3% to 3%]) with 0.84 binge drinking probability rising to 0.96 by June without returning to baseline. Males, Whites, middle‐aged/older adults, college degree recipients, those consistently working, and those above the poverty limit were overrepresented in various increasing (vs. minimal/stable) frequency trajectories. Males, Whites, nonmarried, those without college degree, 18 to 39‐year‐olds, and middle aged were overrepresented in increasing (vs. minimal/stable) intensity trajectories.ConclusionsSeveral distinct U.S. adult sociodemographic subpopulations appear to have acquired new drinking patterns during the pandemic's first 42 weeks. Frequent alcohol use assessment in the COVID‐19 era could improve personalized medicine and population health efforts to reduce drinking.

The objective of this study was to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the energy and electricity industry, with a particular focus on green energy sources such as wind and solar energy. The analysis provided a global perspective, based on a panel of 45 countries that represent more than 90% of the world’s GDP. The analysis was structured in two steps: a counterfactual analysis based on the mean and variance of the country data sample for the 14 indicators and the 45 countries in the panel and a counterfactual analysis that looked at the statistical significance of the difference of mean between the data sets referring to the time of the pandemic and before the time of the pandemic using the t-student test of 2 samples assuming unequal variances between samples. For the pandemic time, the analysis took into consideration two years (2020 and 2021), and the benchmark year was 2019. The counterfactual analysis included a short-term perspective based on a comparative analysis with the dynamic of the year before the crisis (2019/2018 dynamic) and a long-term perspective based on a comparative analysis with the multiannual average dynamic (2019/2015 – 5 years). The study results indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a decline in global energy and electricity production, a partial reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions, a partial improvement in the global trade balance with energy and electricity, a decrease in global energy and electricity consumption, and a partial increase in global green energy and electricity production and intensity

The ambitious United Nations-adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require the concentrated effort of governments, the business sector, and other key stakeholders, including women and youth, for its success. Effective leadership will be essential for different sectors to integrate these development goals into strategic plans and operational activities in the service of realizing this agenda by 2030. Unfortunately for Least Developed Countries (LDCs), the COVID-19 pandemic caused the worst economic outcomes in 30 years. For this group of countries, the pandemic has negatively influenced efforts to eradicate poverty and improve social outcomes. This setback makes achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 a more distant prospect for LDCs, which include 20% of the world’s youth. Although governments need to take the lead, additional stakeholders, such as non-profit organizations, including youth-focused organizations, are vital to achieving the SDGs. Therefore, this research study focused on the work of a youth organization operating in Haiti, and its alignment with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Using action research, this dissertation aimed to provide support for the prioritization of youth outcomes in the developmental goals of countries. The findings of this action research study underscored existing opportunities to improve youth outcomes in Haiti. The study participants agreed that previous volunteer opportunities, available to active and engaged members of the organization HAITI5, allowed the youths to get training regarded as work experience. Hence, the study participants designed an intervention to expand volunteer opportunities, and to provide more youths with professional experiences that could be leveraged in the recruitment process for employment. Also, the study participants considered the youth-focused organization invaluable to the professional and personal development of members and agreed that HAITI5’s commitment to developing the skills of its members ...

Climate change is a pervasive element in our modern lives, yet many harbor ideas about climate change and associated climate mechanisms that are misinformed or incorrect. Ideas like these – prior conceptions (ideas that people carry with them into learning experiences about a subject) – are studied in varying degrees across fields. The geosciences do not have a particularly robust collection of research on the subject of geoscience-specific prior conceptions. At the same time, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, alternatives to in-person lecture such as online lecture have become normalized. The original aim of this paper was to determine if different approaches to online lecture (such as including background music or having students click through a series of videos) had different outcomes in correcting prior conceptions. However, due to sample size constraints, this paper presents a survey-based look into what prior conceptions about climate change BGSU college students have through the lens of an introductory geology class lecture. This paper asserts that certain prior conceptions (such as those concerning rates of change, deep time, the role of humans in climate change, and the meaning of the term “climate change) are more pervasive within the student body than others. This paper also provides a framework for future study on the subject with a larger sample size.

AbstractBackgroundThe COVID‐19 pandemic has resulted in pronounced changes for college students, including shifts in living situations and engagement in virtual environments. Although college drinking decreased at the onset of the pandemic, a nuanced understanding of pandemic‐related changes in drinking contexts and the risks conferred by each context on alcohol use and related consequences have yet to be assessed.MethodsSecondary data analyses were conducted on screening data from a large parent clinical trial assessing a college student drinking intervention (N = 1669). Participants across six cohorts (from Spring 2020 to Summer 2021) reported on the frequency of drinking in each context (i.e., outside the home, home alone, home with others in‐person, and home with others virtually), typical amount of drinking, and seven alcohol‐related consequence subscales.ResultsDescriptive statistics and negative binomial regressions indicated that the proportion and frequency of drinking at home virtually with others decreased, while drinking outside the home increased from Spring 2020 to Summer 2021. Limited differences were observed in the proportion or frequency of individuals drinking at home alone or at home with others in‐person. Negative binomial and logistic regressions indicated that the frequency of drinking outside the home was most consistently associated with more alcohol‐related consequences (i.e., six of the seven subscales). However, drinking at home was not without risks; drinking home alone was associated with abuse/dependence, personal, social, hangover, and social media consequences; drinking home with others virtually was associated with abuse/dependence and social consequences; drinking home with others in‐person was associated with drunk texting/dialing.ConclusionThe proportion and frequency of drinking in certain contexts changed during the COVID‐19 pandemic, although drinking outside the home represented the highest risk drinking context across the pandemic. Future prevention and intervention efforts may benefit from considering approaches specific to different drinking contexts.