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Song Gupuh, a partially collapsed cave in the Gunung Sewu Limestones of East Java, Indonesia, contains over 16 m of deposits with a faunal sequence spanning some 70 ka. Major changes in the range of animals represented show the impact of climate change and humans. The Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene was a period of maximum biodiversity. Human use of Song Gupuh and other cave sites in the region also intensified significantly from ca. 12 ka, together with a new focus on exploitation of small-bodied species (macaque monkeys and molluscs), the first evidence for import of resources from the coast, and use of bone and shell tools. Human activity, especially after the onset of the Neolithic around 2.6 ka, subsequently contributed to a progressive loss of many species from the area, including tapir, elephant, Malayan bear, rhino and tiger, and this extinction process is continuing. We conclude by discussing the biogeographical significance of Song Gupuh in the context of other sites in Java (e.g. Punung, Wajak) and further afield (e.g. Liang Bua).

To review the available evidence that examines the association between climatic and agricultural land use factors and the risks of enteric zoonoses in humans and consider information needs and possible pathways of intervention.The electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science and Embase and government websites were searched systematically for published literature that investigated the association of climatic and/or agricultural exposures with the incidence of the four most common enteric zoonotic diseases in New Zealand (campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis, cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis). Results The 16 studies in the review demonstrated significant associations between climate, agricultural land use and enteric disease occurrence. The evidence suggests that enteric disease risk from environmental reservoirs is pathogen specific. In some rural regions, environmental pathogen load is considerable, with multiple opportunities for zoonotic transmission.Enteric disease occurrence in NZ is associated with climate variability and agricultural land use. However, these relationships interact with demographic factors to influence disease patterns.Improved understanding of how environmental and social factors interact can inform effective public health interventions under scenarios of projected environmental change.

The Late Permian mass extinction was not only the most catastrophic known loss of biodiversity, but was followed by unusually prolonged recovery through the Early Triassic. Opinion has been divided on whether delayed recovery was a legacy of especially profound ecological disruption, or due to additional environmental perturbations. New records from the Sydney Basin in southeastern Australia now reveal five successive Late Permian and Early Triassic spikes of unusually high atmospheric CO2 and profound chemical weathering. These successive atmospheric CO2 greenhouse crises coincided with unusually warm and wet paleoclimates for a paleolatitude of 61°S. Successive transient greenhouse crises punctuated long-term, cool, dry, and low-CO2 conditions, and may account for the persistence of low diversity and small size in Early Triassic plants and animals.

Solar photovoltaics (PVs) and wind constitute more than 60% of global annual net new capacity additions. Balancing an electricity system with 30–100% variable PV and wind is straightforward using off-the-shelf techniques comprising stronger interconnection over large areas to smooth out local weather, storage, demand management, and occasional spillage of renewable electricity. The overwhelming dominance of PV, wind, and hydroelectricity in new renewable energy deployment means that renewable electricity is tracking toward near equivalence with renewable energy. A global survey of off-river (closed-loop) pumped hydro energy storage sites identified 616 000 promising sites around the world with a combined storage capacity of 23 million GWh, which is two orders of magnitude more than required to support 100% global renewable electricity. This is significant because pumped hydro storage is the lowest cost storage method and is available off-the-shelf in large scale. Australia is deploying PV and wind at a rate of 250 W per year per capita, which is four to five times faster than in the European Union, the USA, Japan, and China. This is significant because it demonstrates that rapid deployment of PV and wind is feasible, with consequent rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Although the Australian forest plantation industry acknowledges that there is a role for corporate social responsibility (CSR) in forest management, there is confusion as to what this constitutes in practice. This paper describes the conflicts between internal and external stakeholder views on CSR in plantation forestry. We conducted in-depth interviews with key informants across three plantation management regions in Australia: Tasmania, the Green Triangle and south-west Western Australia. We interviewed a range of stakeholders including forest company employees, local councils, Indigenous representatives, and environmental non-government organisations. CSR-related initiatives that stakeholders believed were important for plantation management included the need for community engagement, accountability towards stakeholders, and contribution to community development and well-being. Although there was wide support for these initiatives, some stakeholders were not satisfied that forest companies were actively implementing them. Due to the perception that forest companies are not committed to CSR initiatives such as community engagement, some stakeholder expectations are not being satisfied.

COVID-19 has changed the permeability of borders in transboundary environmental governance regimes. While borders have always been selectively permeable, the pandemic has reconfigured the nature of cross-border flows of people, natural resources, finances and technologies. This has altered the availability of spaces for enacting sustainability initiatives within and between countries. In Southeast Asia, national governments and businesses seeking to expedite economic recovery from the pandemic-induced recession have selectively re-opened borders by accelerating production and revitalizing agro-export growth. Widening regional inequities have also contributed to increased cross-border flows of illicit commodities, such as trafficked wildlife. At the same time, border restrictions under the exigencies of controlling the pandemic have led to a rolling back and scaling down of transboundary environmental agreements, regulations and programs, with important implications for environmental democracy, socio-ecological justice and sustainability. Drawing on evidence from Southeast Asia, the article assesses the policy challenges and opportunities posed by the shifting permeability of borders for organising and operationalising environmental activities at different scales of transboundary governance.