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Free-ranging dogs are among the top global invasive species with major impacts on biodiversity and humans. Academicians in conservation or allied fields are at the forefront of investigating this conflict. But are their opinions impaired by their emotional attachment with dogs? We investigated this question through an online survey that reached 360 academicians across 139 institutions in India. We assessed the respondent's affinity towards dogs and their perception on their impacts, causes of this problem, suggestions on its mitigation and success of the mitigation measures. We found that although affinity towards dogs had no effect on respondent's perceptions of their impacts, their perceptions on the causes and suggested mitigation measures differed. Respondents who liked dogs suggested ineffective measures like reproductive control and mass adoption to mitigate their impacts, while also acknowledging that the suggested mitigation measures would never work due to multiple reasons. Through our results we show that academicians who are presumed to provide evidence-driven solutions opted for value-driven suggestions. This could be due to high consideration given to emotions in animal rights policies in the country. We interpret this contradiction using cognitive dissonance theory and suggest a need of encouraging a scientific temper of evidence-based mitigation measures.

Commercial fisheries globally experienced numerous and significant perturbations during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting the livelihoods of millions of fishers worldwide. In the Northeastern United States, fishers grappled with low prices and disruptions to export and domestic markets, leaving many tied to the dock, while others found ways to adapt to the changing circumstances brought about by the pandemic. This paper investigates the short-term impacts of the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic (March-June 2020) on commercial fishers in the Northeast U.S. to understand the effects of the pandemic on participation in the fishery and fishers’ economic outcomes, using data collected from an online survey of 258 Northeast U.S. commercial fishers. This research also assesses characteristics of those fishers who continued fishing and their adaptive strategies to the changing circumstances. Analysis of survey responses found the majority of fishers continued fishing during the early months of the pandemic, while a significant number had stopped fishing. Nearly all reported a loss of income, largely driven by disruptions of export markets, the loss of restaurant sales, and a resulting decline in seafood prices. Landings data demonstrate that while fishing pressure in 2020 was reduced for some species, it remained on track with previous years for others. Fishers reported engaging in a number of adaptation strategies, including direct sales of seafood, switching species, and supplementing their income with government payments or other sources of income. Many fishers who had stopped fishing indicated plans to return, suggesting refraining from fishing as a short-term adaptation strategy, rather than a plan to permanently stop fishing. Despite economic losses, fishers in the Northeastern U.S. demonstrated resilience in the face of the pandemic by continuing to fish and implementing other adaptation strategies rather than switching to other livelihoods.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is affecting the environment and conservation research in fundamental ways. Many conservation social scientists are now administering survey questionnaires online, but they must do so while ensuring rigor in data collection. Further, they must address a suite of unique challenges, such as the increasing use of mobile devices by participants and avoiding bots or other survey fraud. We reviewed recent literature on online survey methods to examine the state of the field related to online data collection and dissemination. We illustrate the review with examples of key methodological decisions made during a recent national study of people who feed wild birds, in which survey respondents were recruited through an online panel and a sample generated via a project participant list. Conducting surveys online affords new opportunities for participant recruitment, design, and pilot testing. For instance, online survey panels can provide quick access to large and diverse samples of people. Based on the literature review and our own experiences, we suggest that to ensure high-quality online surveys one should account for potential sampling and nonresponse error, design survey instruments for use on multiple devices, test the instrument, and use multiple protocols to identify data quality problems. We also suggest that research funders, journal editors, and policy makers can all play a role in ensuring high-quality survey data are used to inform effective conservation programs and policies.

There is growing evidence that exposure to the natural world (blue-green spaces) has potential benefits for mental health and well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures adopted to control it provide a natural experiment to investigate the links between nature exposure and mental health under extreme conditions. Using a survey distributed online and based on 6,080 responses, we tested three hypotheses: (1) people will show different levels of symptoms of depression and anxiety depending on the level of lockdown (severity) and ability to maintain contact with outdoor spaces; and (2) where access to outdoor public spaces was restricted, those with access to private outdoor spaces (2a) or even a green-blue nature view (2b) will show fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety and a more positive mood. Lockdown severity significantly affected mental health, while contact with nature helped people to cope with these impacts. The buffering effect of nature was especially relevant for those under strict lockdowns. People perceived that nature helped them to cope with lockdown measures; and emotions were more positive among individuals with accessible outdoor spaces and blue-green elements in their views. These findings can help decision-makers in developing potential future lockdown measures to mitigate the negative impacts, helping people to be more resilient and maintain better mental health.

This paper calls for transformative science to catalyze the needed change in the agricultural sector. It sheds light on the current dysfunctional system of resource allocation of the CAP and its poor economic, ecological and social outcomes. While the disparity between the desired outcomes and the reality is undisputed within research, former reforms have resulted in little change of the CAP. However, there is now a window of opportunity for real change with the transitional phase of the CAP, the shock event of the Coronavirus pandemic as a magnifying glass for underlying systemic problems and the proclamation of the European Green Deal, in particular the Farm-to-Fork-Strategy. The current system is impoverishing our biodiversity, soils, health and rural socio-economic tissue. To break this downward spiral, the authors suggest allocating resources according to the common good that a farm produces. To design change, this article assigns a major role to transformative science and lays out starting points and missions for further research.

China is a developing country that has experienced rapid industrial growth over the last 30 years. However, due to limited environmental legislation and enforcement, many industrial companies have directly released wastewater into waterways without proper treatment, leading to the problem of heavy metal pollution. As a result, chronic exposure to heavy metals is considered the main threat to human health in China. To solve the issue of heavy metal pollution, China’s government used top-down centralised state-centric governance. However, state-centric governance is limited in that it requires a long response time. In this paper, the theory of network governance is instead applied to analyse the heavy metal pollution problem, and a new model, the voluntary governance model, is introduced. With the voluntary governance, the China government will be better able to improve the efficiency of the governance process and provide a healthier environment to the citizens.

Field interventions employed to improve preventive health behaviors and outcomes generally use well-established approaches; however, recent studies have reported that health education and promotional interventions have little to no impact on health behaviors, especially in low- and middle-income countries. We aimed to develop a conceptual framework to improve intervention designs that would internalize these concerns and limitations. We identified three major experimental design- and implementation-related concerns associated with mental models, including the balance between the treatment and control groups, the treatment group’s willingness to adopt suggested behaviors, and the type, length, frequency, intensity, and sequence of treatments. To minimize the influence of these aspects of an experimental design, we proposed a mental model-based repeated multifaceted (MRM) intervention design framework, which represents a supportive intervention design for the improvement of health education and promotional programs. The framework offers a step-by-step method that can be used for experimental and treatment design and outcome analysis, and that addresses potential implementation challenges.

Participation by local communities in wildlife conservation projects have long been advocated since it is socially just and is effective to reach conservation and development goals. Socio–economic variables that drive participation and impact of participation have been studied, but the contextual process that stir up local community participation remains understudied. In this paper, we studied factors facilitating community participation in three wildlife conservation projects in Northeast India. Through ethnographic fieldwork at these sites we identified conservation actors and examined interactions between them.We found common modes of participation at these sites and these were related to gaining material incentives, providing labour, attending consultative workshops. Levels of interaction and coercion were found to be different in three sites. Three critical factors that drive participation were: (1) trigger, (2) negotiation and (3) sustenance. Trigger factors kickstart participation through establishment of a crisis narrative and facilitation by external actors. Negotiation factors emerge from day–to–day interaction between local community and external actors and involve effective entry stage activities, income opportunity, mediating voices within the community and intra–community dynamics. Sustenance factors affect the long term participation by community in the conservation project and involve tangible/intangible results, capability development of locals, funding and availability to critical information. In our paper we argue that investment of time and fund to understand the stakeholders and their concept of participation, periodic feedback sessions, capacity development of locals for self–mobilization, innovative information dissemination and securing long term funding are necessary for effective local community participation.

Purpose Plate waste is uneaten food left behind on the plate after a meal. Plate waste – like all food waste – burdens the environment. Plate waste – in contrast to other types of food waste – is absolutely unnecessary and almost entirely preventable. This study aims to synthesize past research on plate waste and outline a future research agenda. Design/methodology/approach Past research into plate waste is discussed, and the need for specific directions of future research is pointed out. A systematics of measures for the prevention of plate waste is offered which uses the following as criteria: the suitability of measures to the hospitality context; and whether the measure has been scientifically proven to be effective. Findings Plate waste research has a very short history. To date, efforts have been focusing on quantifying the extent of the problem. More theoretical work is needed to identify drivers of place waste and develop and experimentally test theory-based practical interventions to reduce the amount of plate waste generated. Originality/value The key contribution of this perspective paper is to synthesize prior work on plate waste and offer a future research agenda.

Authoritative economic growth forecasts are often optimistically biased. Negatively skewed variation--negative shocks being larger than positive shocks--could contribute to bias by making long-run average growth smaller than typical-year (median) growth. This positively biases forecasts based on typical years. We compare medians and means in real per-capita GDP growth across countries, regions, and time windows from 1820-2016. Over decadal periods, we find mean growth rates

Current estimates suggest that the world is on track for ~3°C of heating relative to pre-industrial levels by 2100. This is likely to bring great disruption to earth systems, leading to increased natural hazard risks, crop failures, civil unrest and population migration. There is, however, a high degree of uncertainty about the impacts that such events may have on land use and ecosystems in individual countries. Integrated assessment modelling (IAM) of scenarios like the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) offers one way to address this uncertainty, allowing outcomes such as the relative land cover under food production or forestry to be compared for each scenario. However, global and continental-scale IAMs need to be complemented by landscape scale spatial modelling to inform national and regional policy making. In this paper, we demonstrate impacts and trade-offs of future land cover change in Scotland, a UK region with a high degree of political autonomy, using downscaled SSPs from Europe to the national and finally the regional level. Our methods integrate participatory knowledge co-construction approaches with land-use modelling. Firstly, a stakeholder workshop held in November 2018 led to the development of detailed narratives for 5 UK SSPs. Two contrasting UK SSPs, SSP1 (Sustainability), and SSP5 (Fossil-Fuelled Development) were then adapted to the case of Scotland and simulated to the year 2040 using a land use change model (APoLUS). Land use demands for each scenario were quantified based on historical tendencies, narrative information derived from the workshop, and future Scottish Government targets. Results highlight trade-offs between forest cover, grasslands, natural areas including marginal peatlands important for carbon sequestration, and cropland for food production and the drinks industry. We discuss these preliminary findings, highlight key areas of uncertainty and present pathways for future work.

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mark the first time a global body has attempted to manage the planet’s future in its entirety, linking together urgent, over- lapping and contradictory existential threats. If we treat the world as an interlinked system, it becomes clear that all answers to how we live are provisional and evolving. We need more than new knowledge or policies; we need to consider how our different efforts combine, take on life of their own, and nurture new configurations in a dynamic system. This reframing of Development discourse invites a rethink using design theory and approaches to complexity. This essay seeks to contribute by proposing tools to manage the new uncertainties this introduces into the design of experts’ research work. Using ideas of “unfinishedness”, we focus on the incommensurability and contingency to be found in knowledge-making and problem-solving for the evolving goal of socio-environmental renewal.

Environmentally Displaced Persons (EDPs) need to relocate, but there is also the risk of losing a unique culture, language, and way of life. This study uses mathematical models associated with the efficiency of biological enzyme clustering in order to assess the degree to which EDPs are at risk of loss of culture and determine the potential impact of proposed policies.There were critical objectives of this study, firstly, to predict the number of people at risk of losing their homeland at a particular time in the future. Second, based on the aforementioned projections, find ethical and beneficial policies to move these Environmentally Displaced Persons (EDPs) in a way such that EDPs can honorably preserve their unique cultural heritage. We took into account that these small island nations have small populations and individual cultural differences exist within each different island.A Sea Level Rise-Based Climate Impact Migration Model was proposed to find the number of people affected by the land lost from the Sea Level Rise (SLR). In the direction of accurate projections, our team designed two simulations that were executed on the SLR Model. Fundamentally, an Exponential Regression Model was used to calculate the future total population of Maldives (one of the at-risk-nations in danger of flooding) presuming the population followed the exponential growth. Next, we used a Levenberg-Marquardt Algorithm to find the non-linear model for the flooded area of the land and Water Drop Waveform Model to also calculate the flooded area on the island. We predict about 13% of people lose their homes by 2050, 72% by 2080, and 93% by 2100.Next, a Two-Step Metabolic Pathway Model was adopted to explain social heritage preservation within a confined area based on the idea that two-step metabolism and cultural transition work in a complementary fashion. It is known that communication between EDPs and individuals of the host country must go through an intermediate to communicate, this analogous phenomenon is seen in the one-way communication between an enzyme and its substrate to catalyze the formation of a product. In our mathematical model, the product is the cultural preservation and the enzyme-substrate complex is mathematically seen by the interaction between the EDPs and individuals of the host country. Just as humans are key to cultural preservation, enzymes-substrate complexes are essential for product formation and we contend that this notion should occur in optimized ratios. We predict there should be twice as many people absorbing the culture than the ones who transfer it. The area of the EDP cluster should be 2.96km squared.Finally, the sensitivity of our proposed mathematical models were evaluated and suggestions for future implementation of political decisions and improvements were promoted.

Illegal wildlife trade is gaining prominence as a threat to biodiversity, but addressing it remains challenging. To help inform proactive policy responses in the face of uncertainty, in 2018 we conducted a horizon scan of significant emerging issues. We built upon existing iterative horizon scanning methods, using an open and global participatory approach to evaluate and rank issues from a diverse range of sources. Prioritized issues related to three themes: developments in biological, information, and financial technologies; changing trends in demand and information; and socioeconomic, geopolitical shifts and influences. The issues covered areas ranging from changing demographic and economic factors to innovations in technology and communications that affect illegal wildlife trade markets globally; the top three issues related to China, illustrating its vital role in tackling emerging threats. This analysis can support national governments, international bodies, researchers, and nongovernmental organizations as they develop strategies for addressing the illegal wildlife trade.

Successful implementation of environmental policies, including climate adaptation and mitigation policies, requires careful consideration of regional and local conditions. Consequently, there is growing understanding that regional models are needed to support climate and environmental policy making. Such models need to take into account the dynamics of geographical space as well as historic and expected future land use change patterns. One relevant geographical modelling approach is based on cellular automata (CA) which has a prominent track record of successful application to a diverse range of geographical problems. Traditionally, CA models are calibrated to reproduce the footprint of actor decision-making manifested in historical land use dynamics, and then projected forward to explore the effect of the observed dynamics on future periods. However, this is a poor representation of the way the world actually works, since policy decisions reflect current needs and priorities, not historic ones. Such a model cannot help us understand how decision-making actors might respond spontaneously to emerging land use outcomes. For these reasons, we believe there is considerable scope for existing CA-based geographical models to be improved by introducing realistic representations of the dynamic behaviour of decision-making actors. We present a modelling approach which retains the well-attested benefits of CA land use models, but which allows greater flexibility in modelling the dynamic behaviour of actors for particular “policy driven” land uses. To implement our approach, we integrate the APoLUS model (APoLUS stands for Actor, Policy and Land Use Simulator) – an open-source, multi-platform model based on geographical CA – with a system dynamics (SD) model describing the actor dynamics. The SD model is tailored to reproduce the dynamics of interaction (and possible conflicting interests) of a number of aggregate actors that might influence regional development in general and might affect (either in positive or in negative way) the implementation of policy under study in particular. In the present paper, we describe new developments in the actor dynamics model family, progressing beyond earlier work in three key ways: (i) incorporating the 2 possible ‘regime shifts’ that might be related, in particular, to election cycles; (ii) describing in more detail the economic drivers of actor dynamics; (iii) introducing the stochasticity in a SD model.

In due course of evolution, maintaining health and coping with aggrievances and illness for survival or adaptation has always been the goal of organisms, which has been verified by the narrative aeons of ancient culture and archaeological shreds of evidence of natural, non-natural/synthetic diseases, accidents and injuries. The earlier discussion on hunter-gatherer’s health, illness, and healthcare management knowledge system involves the discourse of epidemiological transitions. This research aims to understand the health knowledge system of present-day hunter-gatherers through cross-cultural comparison beyond the dichotomy of natural diseases and rational treatments. The researcher has focused on four contemporary hunter-gatherer’s communities i.e. Arana-dan, Cholanaicken, Kattunayakan, Paniyan/Kattupaniyan of Nilambur valley, Kerala to understand the hunter-gatherer’s perception/conception of health and illness and what are mechanisms of healthcare and healing among them. This research has highlighted the problem of static versus dynamic in the conception of health in the time spatiotemporal transition and the existing uniformity in the conception of health despite the diversity in socio-cultural practices. The research also delineates of hunter-gatherers relation to landscape (in the context of health and healthcare), and questions assumptions of ecofeminism and axioms of knowledge distribution system among the hunter-gatherers based on a Marxian division of labour. The study includes the appropriate ethnographic survey among the colonies of the selected tribes to understand the placement of land, life and living of hunter-gatherers in a contemporary context.

This viewpoint puts forward an argument in support of short communication formats. Such formats are still frowned upon my many universities. Wrongly so. Some of the most brilliant ideas of our time were communicated in short notes.

Strengthening farmers’ adaptive capacity is important for decreasing their vulnerability to natural hazards in this changing climate, and for safeguarding local food systems. One key step in strengthening adaptive capacity is understanding the relationship between farmers’ experience with natural hazards and their perceptions of climate change, and its role in farmers’ decision making around climate change adaptation. Here we explore Puerto Rican farmers’ psychological distance of climate change after experiencing category 4 Hurricane Maria, in order to intersect the roles of experience, perceptions, and motivation for farmers’ decision-making around climate change adaptation. Farmers throughout Puerto Rico were surveyed by Extension Services’ agents (n = 405, 87% response rate) in 2018, eight months after Hurricane Maria. A structural equation model was used to evaluate how reported experience with past events and direct damages by Hurricane Maria related to farmers’ psychological distance of climate change, and the association of these variables to farmers’ motivation to adapt to climate change. We found that farmers psychological distance of climate change is both near and far, since they show a broad awareness to climate change’s impacts both locally and globally in different dimensions (temporal, geographical, and social). Reported experience and direct damages by the hurricane were not linked to their psychological distance of climate change, and these did not relate to their motivation to adapt. These results suggest that using extreme events as a driver for climate belief and action may no longer be relevant, especially in a context where there is a high level of climate change belief and continued threat of extreme events. Thus, broadening analysis beyond individual perceptions as drivers of climate adaptation to how structural dynamics are linked to adaptive capacity could provide better understanding. This study is among the first to study the role of climate change experience and perceptions on farmers’ climate change adaption after an extreme weather event in an island-archipelago setting.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has impacted with a swiftness that have caught countries, regions and local communities totally off guard, exposing our ill-preparedness to respond to an international health emergency of catastrophic magnitude. It seems clear that we must critically examine what has just happened, learn the lessons, and enhance prevention, early warning and preparedness mechanisms. However, the pandemic has also highlighted, more generally, the inextricable and complex interdependence and mutual vulnerability of social and natural systems. Approaches based on complexity science that take into account that tight relationship must be mainstreamed in current policy making, but, at present, that could result in failure for two main reasons. Firstly, those approaches might be too sophisticated for current policy making pursuing sustainable development. Secondly, it is unlikely that far-reaching policies aimed at stimulating post-pandemic economic development, can be steered through innovative frameworks that remain untested. Here, using COVID-19 as an example, an intermediate step based on the notion of radical uncertainty is suggested. Additionally, three notions that could enhance scientific support to policy making in conditions of high systemic risk and uncertainty are proposed: modulating contingency, adaptive inference and blue uncertainty.

Urban, peri-urban forests and other natural areas provide a wide range of material and non-material benefits to people known as ecosystem services. Access to these areas has been linked to improvements in physical and mental health of local populations. In the Spring of 2020, the COVID-19 global pandemic forced many governments to impose a set of restrictions including the closure of businesses and cancelation of events, social distancing and limitation of gatherings, and movement limitations. During this period of restrictions, we conducted a study assessing the importance of urban and peri-urban forests and other natural areas to people living in and around the city of Burlington, Vermont, USA. We evaluated the use and value changes related to these natural areas before and during the period of restrictions. We received over 400 surveys from the local community. The results show that 69.0% of the respondents had increased or greatly increased their visitation rate to these areas, and 80.6% of respondents considered that the importance of these natural areas and access to them either increased or greatly increased. Moreover 25.8% of the sample had either never, or very rarely accessed their local natural areas before the pandemic, but 69.2% of the first time or infrequent visitors reported that having access to these areas during COVID-19 as ‘very important’. People reported that these areas were important for a wide range of activities from exercise to birding, but also reported values related to reducing stress in a time of global chaos. Our results indicate the increasing demand and value of such areas in times of crisis such as COVID-19. Experts in zoonotic disease predict the potential for more frequent pandemic events, thus predicating the importance for continued funding for, maintenance of and improved access to natural areas to our largely urban civilization.

Population risk assessments of sea level rise are key to understanding the impacts of climate change on coastal communities and necessary for adaptation planning. Future sea level rise exposes coastal populations to a spectrum of risk, but assessments often define exposure narrowly, such as areas experiencing permanent inundation only. We reviewed the most common sea level rise exposure assessment methods and identified three widely used spatial definitions of physical exposure risk: mean higher high water, the 100-year floodplain, and the low-elevation coastal zone. Taken individually, each treat risk to sea level rise as binary (affected or not affected), resulting in narrow definitions, homogenizing risk and exposure across space and time. We present a framework that integrates and smooths these classifications under a single continuous metric. To do so, we advance a sophisticated spatiotemporal flood-modeling approach -- expected annual exposure -- based on a probabilistic spatial envelope that unifies spatial extents between the high-tide line and the 10,000-year floodplain. We show that the effects from sea level rise will impact far more people far sooner than previously thought. In particular, our results suggest that single, binary extent assessments either underestimate or overestimate the magnitude of the at-risk populations while also spatially homogenizing the impacts to sea level rise. Our advance on modeling annual exposure provides a more robust and holistic assessment of the populations most at-risk to flooding from sea level rise. This typology can be used to guide new research connecting risk of sea level rise to related adaptation policies and planning.

Surveys measures of environmental concern are know to only weakly predict self-reported environmental behaviour. In addition, self-reported and actual behaviour may not match in empirical settings. To better explore the relation among these variables and the political stance of participants, we ran an online experiment with 805 US residents. Four key variables – environmental concern, self -reported environmental behaviour, observed environmental behaviour (in the form of carbon compensation), and political attitudes – were measured and their interactions in promoting pro-environment behaviour were analysed. We found that self-reported measures hardly held any correlation with real behaviour and that political attitudes mainly predicted self-reported measures, not real environmental behaviour.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to alter daily life and lead to changes in the way we spend time outside. In an effort to gather timely and relevant data on national recreation patterns, the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics and its academic partner, Pennsylvania State University, have been working to conduct a study that can offer guidance to land managers, recreation providers, and outdoor enthusiasts across the United States. Through three phases of survey-based data collection, ranging from April 9th to May 21st, 2020, a longitudinal perspective of how outdoor recreationists are reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic was developed from this research. The timing of this research was purposeful, as it intended to capture self-reported information related to outdoor recreation and COVID-19 during periods of time when the virus had been officially documented as a pandemic, resulting federal and state stay-at-home orders were implemented across the U.S., and many parks and protected closed or discontinued regular operations. Phases 1 and 2 of this assessment were detailed by previous reports. This report details the findings across all three phases of research. These findings track behaviors, psychosocial determinants of outdoor recreation decision-making, and future intentions across the study period. This report is intended to provide valuable information for managing the changing recreation use of public lands, predicting spikes in recreation, and offering insight for land managers as they work to protect the natural world.The following tables, figures, and corresponding brief descriptions are intended to compare results across the three phases of this research effort.

We take a human macroecological approach using energy as a fundamental currency to quantify the emergence and future sustainability of urban societies globally with a special look at Latin America. Energetic scaling analysis showed most modern humans in cities in Latin America and elsewhere live at densities of ~10,000 ind/km2, ~4 orders of magnitude greater than our hunter-gatherer ancestors (

Understanding aspects of the survey climate that contribute to nonresponse is an essential component of stakeholder opinion research. Participants’ general attitude towards surveys has only been recently considered as a factor contributing to nonresponse. This study presents exploratory results of data gathered using recently developed survey attitude scale among commonly sampled wildlife stakeholders: deer and elk hunters. Findings suggest the stakeholders hold a positive attitude toward surveys, i.e., they value surveys and do not consider them burdensome. Assessment of the psychometric adequacy of the survey attitude scale confirmed acceptable metrics, results which align with previous psychometric assessments. Results provide evidence that the survey attitude scale can serve as a useful and accurate tool that may contribute to our understanding of the survey climate and nonresponse therein.

One in every two Indian households continues to rely on highly-polluting solid fuels to meet their cooking and other energy demands. Recent evidence demonstrates that people suffering from preconditions associated with air pollution and those with short-term exposures to air pollution are highly susceptible to the novel Coronavirus infection and associated morbidity and mortality. And as for many Indians, especially those with pre-existing health conditions and the elderly, home-based isolation and confinement practices are likely to continue to prevent the infection, exposure to household air pollution may render such population groups more susceptible to COVID-19. This warrants caution and demands immediate and specific actions; which are discussed. To protect the health and wellbeing of millions of Indians, during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond, addressing household air pollution should be prioritized and aligned with long term environmental health initiatives in the country.

The first COVID-19 case in Mexico was confirmed on 26 February 2020 and by May 3 the number of registered cases had risen to 30,927. However the rate of transmission varied greatly from city to city. We used data on temperature, humidity and ultraviolet radiation (UV) from 45 cities all over the country to explore whether there was an association between these variables and rates of transmission and rates of accumulation of COVID-19 ascribed deaths. The advantage of an in-country study of this kind is that many of the variables that can confound international studies are held constant (e.g. public health policies, methods of reporting, cultural, behavioural and genetic factors). Although the official statistics undoubtedly greatly underestimate the situation in Mexico due to lack of testing, they are underestimated in all cities so this should not introduce bias across the sample. We found that temperature and humidity had no discernible association with transmission rates but that UV during the transmission period was negatively correlated with rates of transmission, suggesting a sterilizing effect. UV in the January preceding the epidemic had a slightly higher association with transmission rates than UV during the transmission period itself. We also found negative associations of UV in the transmission period and in January with rate of cumulative deaths, but at lower levels of statistical significance. We conclude that in addition to a sterilizing effect during the transmission period, UV may have a physiological effect in reducing transmission and deaths due to COVID-19, most likely through the medium of vitamin D production in the body. This follows the growing body of medical evidence that vitamin D deficiency is associated with severity of COVID-19. However, we also found a negative correlation between altitude and rates of COVID-19 transmission, distinct and independent of the UV effect, which may indicate that other physiological processes are also present. In a multiple regression, altitude and UV together accounted for 18% of the variation in transmission rates between cities.

In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the daily lives of people around the world. In an effort to quantify these changes, Google released an open-source dataset pertaining to regional mobility trends—including park visitation trends. This dataset offers vast application potential, containing aggregated information from location data collected via smartphones around the world. However, empirical analysis of these data is limited. Namely, the factors causing reported changes in mobility and the degree to which these changes can be directly attributable to COVID-19 remain unknown. The goal of this study is to address these gaps in our understanding of both the changes in park visitation and the causes of these changes. Results suggest that seasonality, not the COVID-19 pandemic, serves as the primary driver of reported changes in park visitation. Specifically, latitude-driven seasonal changes significantly influence visitation trends. Median age of a county is also a statistically significant driver.

The reservoir usually has multiple functions such as hydropower and water distribution for different end users. Multiple functions and multiple agents also mean there are tradeoffs among multiple functions among different end users. Through feedback loops, the system dynamics tools concern on the interdependency and the complexity of the nexus elements. This paper applies the system archetypes in investigating water-energy-food-land nexus (WEFLN) in the Jatiluhur reservoir, the largest reservoir in Indonesia. Using the system archetypes. It is found that there are growth engines to support industrial, residential, and fisheries sectors. However, water availability will be a crucial issue that possibly bounds the growth engines. This situation is called the limits to growth archetype. Another system archetype, the success to successful, is also identified. This archetype reminds us the distribution of water and power should be adjusted accordingly to sustain the growth in all sectors including industry, residence, and fisheries.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to alter daily life and lead to changes in the way we spend time outside. In an effort to gather timely and relevant data on national recreation patterns before, during, and after the pandemic, the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics and its academic partner, Pennsylvania State University, have been working to conduct a study that can offer guidance to land managers, recreation providers, and outdoor enthusiasts across the United States. Phase 1 of this assessment was conducted April 9th – 11th, 2020 (Rice et al., 2020). Phase 2 of this assessment was conducted April 30th – May 2nd. This second phase of research—discussed in this preliminary report— was designed to provide additional information regarding changes in recreation trends since April 9th, which provides valuable information for managing dynamic recreational use on public lands. In total, 823 outdoor recreationists were surveyed through the Leave No Trace community in a 48-hour window beginning on the morning of April 30th. The results of this second rapid assessment—complete with comparisons to Phase 1 data—will provide valuable information for managing the changing recreation use of public lands, predicting spikes in recreation, and offering insight for land managers as they work to protect the natural world.The following tables, figures, and corresponding brief descriptions are intended to provide initial results from Phase 2 of our research effort, with comparisons to Phase 1 when appropriate. Further results are forthcoming.

This empirical study explores the amount of attention tourists pay to social responsibility (environment and community) information when booking accommodation online. Visual attention is a necessary requirement for tourists to consider the social responsibility of different accommodation options when making bookings. Eye tracking methodology was used to measure the visual attention paid to social responsibility initiatives in a simulated accommodation booking webpage. Results reveal that information about social responsibility initiatives does not attract significant visual attention from tourists, especially when they are confronted with a typically large amount of information about accommodation options. Such information is therefore unlikely to affect booking decisions. Accommodation providers can actively direct tourists’ attention to social responsibility initiatives by reducing the total amount of information provided.

Usually consumers have a relationship with a single energy supplier. Increasingly, the option for consumers to retain their current supplier whilst taking on additional contracts with local suppliers is viewed as having the potential to support growth of local renewable energy. This study took a behavioural economic approach and conducted two pre-registered nationally representative survey experiments (n=1042, n=762). The main aims of the study were to assess the attractiveness of a multiple supplier model for British consumers and to understand the role of default effects and associated cognitive biases (loss-aversion, cognitive effort and implied endorsement) in consumers’ decisions to remain with incumbent suppliers. Results showed that participants were significantly more likely to engage with local energy suppliers under a multiple supplier model than the current single supplier model. In one experiment, consumers’ preference for adding a local supplier under a multiple supplier model was so strong that it overcame default effects. The perception that the supplier has been recommended (i.e. implied endorsement) was the most robust mechanism associated with remaining with default suppliers, suggesting that explicit endorsement of local suppliers may encourage engagement with the energy market. These findings suggest findings suggest that multiple supplier models are likely to be a promising avenue for driving the growth of local energy and opening opportunities for innovation in the British energy market.

Climate change mitigation strategies need both source reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and a significant enhancement of the land sink of carbon dioxide (CO2) through photosynthesis. In recent years, there has been growing attention to forests as an effective way to mitigate climate change as they capture and store large quantities of CO2 as phytomass and in the soil. Numerous forestation programs have been rolled out internationally and governments, mostly in the developing world, have been fostering tree planting initiatives. However, there is a paucity of studies that assess local perceptions to these initiatives and there are virtually no studies that do so in countries recovering from long-term conflict such as Somalia. Here, we analyze the factors that motivate or hinder the perception of young people in Somalia about forestation as a means to mitigate climate change. This demographic was targeted because 75% of the population of Somalia is between the ages of 18 and 35. Our results show that biocentric value orientation, which emphasizes environmental preservation and ecosystem maintenance, has significant positive influence on attitudes towards forestation whereas anthropocentric value orientation, which treats forests as an instrumental value to humans, did not show a significant influence. A surprising discovery was that biocentric value orientation also had a direct positive influence on young people’s intentions to adopt forestation as a strategy to mitigate climate. We also found that risk perception has a significant positive influence on attitude towards forestation as it is a critical driver of collective action against human-induced environmental problems. We conclude the paper with insights and recommendations for policymakers.

Conservation science and practice commonly draw on the theories and methods of social psychology to explain human cognition, emotion, and behavior germane to biodiversity conservation. We created a systematic map of the cross‐disciplinary conservation science literature, which draws on social psychology concepts and methods in their application broadly described as conservation psychology. Established protocols were used to systematically collect and collate peer‐reviewed research published in an explicit selection of multidisciplinary conservation journals. We sought to catalog the literature, elucidate trends and gaps, and critically reflect on the state of conservation psychology and its research practices that aim to influence conservation outcomes. The volume of publications per year and per decade increased from 1974 to 2016. Although a diversity of research designs and methods was applied, studies disproportionately focused on specific concepts (attitudes and beliefs), locations (North America and Europe), and contexts (terrestrial, rural). Studies also tended to be descriptive, quantitative, and atheoretical in nature. Our findings demonstrate that although conservation psychology has generally become more visible and prominent, it has done so within a limited space and suggest that disciplinary research principles and reporting standards must be more universally adopted by traditional and multidisciplinary conservation journals to raise the floor of empirical research.

The increasing trend of environmental disaster due to changing climate has escalated the occurrence of Tsunami, Forest fire, Flood, Epidemics and other extreme health and environmental and hazardous events across the globe. Establishment of effective and transparent communication during the crisis phase is extremely important to reduce the after-effects of the events. In recent times, fake news or news with fabricated content have emerged as major threats of communications during and and post -disaster phase. The present study critically evaluates the nature and consequences of fake news spread during the four major environmental disasters in recent era (Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Keralan Flood, Amazon Forest Fire and African Ebola Epidemic) and prepared a framework for present COVID-19 Pandemic. The criticality and potential threat created by the fake news have been quantified and analyzed through the timeline of news spreading. It has been observed that the adverse impact related to the African Ebola Epidemic was highest due to its multiple fake news origin sites, both online and offline propagation methods, well fabricated content and relatively low effort on containment. However the COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing disaster expected to have a long- drawn impact covering most countries in the world with combined consequences hence it tends to overtake all other events. Policy recommendations have been prepared to combat the spreading of fake news during the present and future environmental disasters. The importance of the study relies on the fact that the number of environmental disasters will increase in future and strategy for risk communication during the time is still not explored adequately. In addition the study will contribute significantly for understanding the present status of information paradigm for COVID-19 and helps in preparing region-specific real-time contingency measures for effective risk communication.

Mexico is the center of domestication and a center for diversity of maize. Area planted with maize is the country’s largest agricultural land use, mostly planted by smallholder family farmers known as campesinos. Due to the large area they plant with saved seed from native varieties in a wide variety of environments across the country, maize evolution under domestication continues today at a very large scale and under a multiplicity of selection pressures. Campesinos have been considered mainly subsistence farmers. Here we show that subsistence production is insufficient for explaining the scale of the area they plant with maize and on which its contemporary evolution under domestication depends. Our hypothesis is that beyond supplying their own consumption needs, campesinos across Mexico collectively produce maize to respond to the demand of non-maize producing local consumers. Here we quantify the extent of subsistence versus surplus production among campesinos, showing that subsistence production cannot explain the scale of their maize cultivation. Then, we test statistically the association between the scale of maize cultivation and socioeconomic variables that link campesino production to the demand by other consumers and examine the implications of the results for the supply and conservation of native maize in the country. Our results suggest that maize trading linking campesinos to other consumers may be important and widespread. We conclude that there are important opportunities for maintaining maize evolution under domestication at large scale by strengthening local maize markets.

THE FINAL VERSION OF THE PAPER WAS PUBLISHED IN EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES AND IS FREELY AVAILABLE HERE: https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2020.66 #### Although the aesthetic appreciation of flowers is a well-known aspect of human behavior, theories explaining its origin are missing. An exception is the evolutionary theory of Heerwagen and Orians, who suggest that humans emotionally respond to flowers because they signal food availability. However, fruits are stronger and more direct signals of food availability than flowers, therefore fruits should elicit stronger emotional responses than flowers. To test the theory, we performed two online studies in Czechia. The participants (n = 3354 and 744 respectively) indicated on a six-point scale their preferences for the photographs of 14 edible Czech plant species (study A) and 20 edible plant species from African savannas (study B), varying in their growth stage (flowering, fruiting). Paired t-tests found no preference for Czech fruiting plants and a strong preference for African flowering plants (p

We study the provision of a public project that globally behaves as a public good but locally behaves as a private bad. This scenario imposes two problems: (i) finding a compensation that makes the project acceptable for the pre-determined host, and (ii) securing the budget to pay for the project and the required compensation. We use a market-like mechanism with two useful properties for this scenario: players can either contribute or request subsidies to fund the public project, and players have veto power over the desired project quantity. In our game, two players benefit from a waste incinerator facility, whereas the third group member, the host, is harmed if the facility is too large. We analyze the efficiency and the re-distributive potential of this mechanism, with and without communication, among group members. We find that the probability of positive provision did not differ with and without communication. However, average provided quantities with respect to the efficient quantity increased from 54% to 81% with communication. We also find that contributions fell below the Lindahl taxes, allowing the players who benefit from a larger facility to accrue most of the efficiency gains. The latter result is consistent with the infrequent evidence of veto threats as a bargaining strategy.

Scientists have repeatedly argued that transformative, multiscale global scenarios are needed as tools in the quest to halt the decline of biodiversity and achieve sustainability goals. As a first step towards achieving this, the experts who participated in the scenarios and models expert group of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) entered into an iterative, participatory process that led to the development of the Nature Futures Framework (NFF). The NFF is a heuristic tool that captures diverse, positive relationships of humans with nature in the form of a triangle. It can be used both as a boundary object for continuously opening up more plural perspectives in the creation of desirable nature scenarios and as an actionable framework for developing consistent nature scenarios across multiple scales. Here, we describe the methods employed to develop the NFF and how this fits into a longer-term process to create transformative, multiscale scenarios for nature. We argue that the contribution of the NFF is two-fold: a) its ability to hold a plurality of perspectives on what is desirable, which enables the development of joint goals and visions and recognises the possible convergence and synergies of measures to achieve these and b), its multi-scale functionality for elaborating scenarios and models that can inform decision-making at relevant levels, making it applicable across specific places and perspectives on nature. If humanity is to achieve its goal of a more sustainable and prosperous future rooted in a flourishing nature, it is critical to open up a space for more plural perspectives of human-nature relationships. As the global community sets out to develop new goals for biodiversity, the NFF can be used as a navigation tool helping to make diverse, desirable futures are possible.

There have been numerous calls across the scientific community, in recent years, for research conferences to embrace sustainability. With growing public consciousness and the challenging context posed by climate change both economically, socially and for biodiversity, researchers should be leading the path towards sustainable event planning. In this article, we propose key performances indicators that not only prioritize environmental goals, but also integrate socio-economic considerations at the roots of the planning cycle. We further discuss the added risks and remaining barriers, at the host organisation and destination levels, to plan a sustainable event. By changing the way that research conferences are organized, the scientific community can incorporate their values, knowledge and passion to strengthen existing standards and frameworks. We hope that, as event sustainability becomes more salient and institutions more prone to sharing lessons learned, sustainable events become the norm for all research conferences and meetings.

Global climate change has the potential to disrupt agricultural systems, undermine household socioeconomic status, and shape the prevalence and distribution of diseases. Each of these changes may influence children’s nutritional status, which is sensitive to food availability, access, and utilization, and which may have lasting consequences for later-life health and socioeconomic outcomes. This paper contributes to the emerging literature on climate and child health by studying the effects of temperature and precipitation exposures on children’s height and weight in Indonesia. Drawing on five rounds of the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) implemented between 1993 and 2015, we estimate fixed-effects regression models of height-for-age (HFA) and weight-for-height (WFH) among samples of children ages 24-59 months and 0-23 months, respectively. We test for heterogeneity in these effects across sub-populations expected to vary in their vulnerability. Results show that delays in monsoon onset are consistently associated with worse child health outcomes. Delays in monsoon onset during the prenatal period are associated with reduced child height among children age 2-4 years, and these effects are concentrated among males. The weight of young (

‘Fuel riots’ are a distinct type of energy-related conflict. We provide the first fuel riots database and explore their social, economic and environmental drivers. The analysis demonstrates links between fuel riots and high international crude oil prices in countries characterised by weak state capacity, deficient governance, fuel scarcity and poor economic performance. We suggest a potential causal pathway for fuel riots: when international fuel prices spike, net fuel-importing countries bear higher costs. If these countries are politically unstable and their government inefficient, the likelihood of fuel riots is high. Wealthier countries can absorb price increases and maintain subsidies, as opposed to poorer societies where fuel riots are more likely. Our findings demonstrate the role of state capacity and socio-economic conditions in enabling conflict, and will inform policy by identifying fertile ground for fuel riots, i.e. societies likely to be affected by increases in fuel prices due to scarcity and climate action (such as carbon taxes). We propose that policies which better control international prices and action designed to reduce political instability in vulnerable countries are key to preventing fuel riots. Fuel subsidy reform must anticipate popular opposition and mitigate the impact upon vulnerable populations in order to reduce the likelihood of instability and minimise hardship.

The environmental (un)sustainability of the tourism industry has been debated for many decades. This debate generated ample empirical evidence of the environmental damage caused by tourism-related human activity. It is underpinned, however, by a passive position: one of largely accepting the tourism industry as it is, and lamenting its negative consequences. An alternative, more active approach, is to deliberately design for environmental sustainability. This article provides examples of how the tourism industry can drive a reduction of environmental damage by actively designing brand-owned touchpoints in a way that entice tourists to behave more environmentally friendly. The article concludes with an overview of promising design approaches and a framework to guide the future design of more environmentally friendly tourism services.

This is the preprint of the peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Industrial Ecology: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jiec.13122 Scenario-based assessments are a useful tool to explore unknown futures and inform decision makers and the public of the consequences of different courses of action. Scenario developments in Industrial Ecology have focused on disparate components of the socioeconomic metabolism and case studies, and few efforts of comprehensive and cumulative scenario formulation are documented. Many important, empirically derived relationships between material cycles, end-use services, and energy use are relevant to global scenario modeling efforts, e.g., of integrated assessment models (IAMs), which do not routinely describe material cycles or the life-cycle impacts of various technology shifts. These inconsistent depictions of material cycles and their environmental impacts hinder the assessment of sustainable development strategies such as demand-side sufficiency, material efficiency, and energy efficiency. We developed three highly detailed scenarios covering 20 global regions to 2060 for the service provisioning of dwelling area and personal transport grounded in salient building and vehicle operation parameters. Our scenarios are based on, and interface with, the Low Energy Demand (LED) and Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP1 and SSP2) narratives. The results comprise scenario-, region-, and period-specific narratives and corresponding parameter values, including per-capita floor space and vehicle stocks, building and vehicle archetype mixes, passenger-km, vehicle-km, vehicle occupancy rates, and implementation potentials of nine material efficiency strategies. The explicit storyline extension approach presented here is an alternative to the aggregate GDP-driven or historical trend extrapolations of service or energy demands. We describe the scenario formulation processes, resulting parameters, their applications, and offer an outlook for prospective sustainability models.

Material production accounts for 23% of all greenhouse gas emissions. More efficient use of materials – through decoupling of services that support human wellbeing from material use – is imperative as other emissions mitigation options are expensive. An interdisciplinary scientific assessment of material efficiency and its links to service provision, material cycle management, and climate policy is needed to identify effective strategies and help design the policy framework required for their implementation. We present RECC, the Resource Efficiency-Climate Change mitigation framework, a first step towards such a comprehensive assessment. RECC is based on dynamic material flow analysis and links the services provided (individual motorized transport and dwelling) to the operation of in-use stocks (passenger vehicles and residential buildings), to the expansion and maintenance of these stocks to their material cycles (major materials like steel and cement), and to energy use and climate impacts. A key innovation of RECC is the up-scaling of detailed descriptions of future product archetypes with different degrees of material and energy efficiency, which are simulated with engineering tools.We utilize RECC with augmented storylines of the shared socioeconomic pathways (SSP) to describe future service demand and associated material requirements. Ten material efficiency strategies at different stages of the material cycle can be assessed by ramping up their implementation rates to the identified technical potentials. RECC provides scenario results for the life cycle impacts of ambitious service-material decoupling concurrent with energy system decarbonization, giving detailed insights on the resource efficiency-climate change mitigation nexus to policy makers worldwide.

***This article has been accepted in Environmental Research Letters. Please refer to the DOI for the accepted manuscript: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abc279.*** Environmental and social problems triggered by rapid palm oil expansion in the tropics have spurred the proliferation of sustainability certification systems such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). While the RSPO aims to improve the impact of oil palm production on people and environments, its effect on local development, environmental quality, and, especially, potential trade-offs between these outcomes remain unclear. Here, we evaluate whether RSPO certification of large-scale industrial concessions has promoted village development and supported environmental quality in Indonesia, the top global palm oil producer. Using a panel dataset with observations from 11,000 villages in Kalimantan and Sumatra from 2003-2014, we apply rigorous quasi-experimental methods to quantify the RSPO's impacts on village development and environmental outcomes. In the short-run, RSPO contributed to environmental conservation, but had limited development outcomes. On average, relative to villages with non-certified concessions, RSPO certification reduced deforestation and protected primary forests in Sumatra and lowered the incidence of village-reported land pollution in Kalimantan. RSPO certification also increased the number of private educational facilities in Kalimantan, but had no statistically significant impacts on other development indicators. However, the trade-offs and complementarities between conservation and development vary by slope, a proxy for ecosystem fragility and oil palm profitability. On gentler slopes, we generally find complementarities between conservation and development outcomes. In Kalimantan, certification increased the number of private educational facilities and reduced deforestation and the incidence of land pollution on slopes

The question of the degree to which participation by civil society contributes to environmental decisions in post-conflict societies has received little attention. This study sheds light on the extent to which degrees of participation contribute to environmental decision-making in the Puntland State of Somalia using questionnaire surveys. We found that active participation has the highest contribution to environmental decisions. Our findings also indicated that the most pressing forms of environmental degradation in Puntland, as perceived by the respondents, are land degradation, drought related to the scarcity of rainfall, and deforestation. This study recommends “environmental cooperation” built into the peace-building process as a clear-cut concept to tackle both environmental degradation and conflicts. At the core of this concept is active participation and collaboration between civil society and the government as a means of mitigating environmental degradation in post-conflict Somalia. This will result in favorable environmental conditions and sustainable peace.

Scientists and policymakers recognize the need to address consumption and lifestyles in order to reconcile environmental and development agendas. Sustainability-oriented grassroots initiatives emerge bottom-up to create opportunities for sustainable lifestyles; yet no prior assessment has ascertained the efficacy of their members to reduce carbon footprints (CF) and enhance well-being. We compare the CF of non-members and members of grassroots initiatives in the domains of food, clothing, housing and transport. We further compare the groups by testing the influence of socio-economic variables that are typically associated with both footprint and well-being. Here we show that grassroots initiative members have 16% lower total carbon footprint, and 43% and 86% lower carbon footprints for food and clothing respectively, compared to their “non-member” regional socio-demographic counterparts. We find a higher adoption of some energy-saving behaviors for initiative members such as greater active travel distance and lower indoor temperatures in the winter, yet no significant differences in the CF of housing and transport. Interestingly, increases in income are not associated with increases in the total CF of members, while the influence of income is confirmed for the CF of the total sample. Instead, factors such as age, household size, and gender better explain the variation in the domain-specific CFs of initiative members. Finally, members show higher life satisfaction compared to non-members and are 11–13% more likely to evaluate their life positively. Our results suggest that initiative members uncover lifestyle features that not only enable lower emissions, but also reconcile emissions with income and well-being.

Despite the methodological issues of Least Cost Path analysis being well known, the inclusion of traversal across slope has not been assessed. This paper uses a Roman road built along a ridge in Cumbria, England as a case study. The ‘High Street’ Roman road provides a suitable case study as its route along the ridge is dictated by the topography. By comparing the computed Least Cost Path results when including and not including traversal across slope as a cost component, this research has found that the inclusion results in Least Cost Paths that more accurately model the known route of the Roman road along the ridge. The Least Cost Path model when not including traversal across slope resulted in 84.8% of the Least Cost Path being within 600m of the known route, compared to 100% when including traversal across slope. Due to the application of anisotropic cost functions, this research also identified that both Least Cost Path models predicted the route from the south towards the north frontiers more accurately, suggesting the Roman road was built with this direction of movement in mind.

This paper assesses how subjective wellbeing is related to housing and neighbourhood characteristics, controlling for personal variables. The secondary data analysis was based on the English Housing Survey, 2017: Housing Stock Data and the English Housing Survey: Fuel Poverty Dataset, 2017, collected in the period April 2016 to March 2018 (N = 9205). Subjective wellbeing was measured with four variables - life satisfaction, the perception of things being worthwhile in life, feeling happy and feeling anxious - that were dichotomized into low and high wellbeing. Logistic regression analysis showed that personal variables are most strongly related to wellbeing but that both housing and neighbourhood variables are also significantly related to it. Finding it difficult to keep the living room warm, being in fuel poverty, and finding it difficult to meet heating costs were associated with lower wellbeing. Low area satisfaction and not feeling safe were also significantly associated with lower wellbeing. The effects of variables are not constant across all four wellbeing measures used which raises the question ‘which wellbeing’ should be addressed. Results also showed that targeting householders with lowest wellbeing and hence in greatest need of wellbeing interventions based on publicly available data would be challenging. Finally, the research community needs to address methodological challenges around identifying the most appropriate covariates, defining wellbeing and considering the measurement of key variables.