Evidence of the increasing effects of climate change is building, as are the investing opportunities and changes in consumer habits linked to environmental concerns and resource use. Here are select dispatches about the companies responding to customer demands and climate risk, the ESG investors and their advisers, and the enterprising individuals and scientists preparing for tomorrow.
Pollution and mental health. A new study led by University of Chicago researchers suggests a significant link between exposure to environmental pollution and an increase in the prevalence of neuropsychiatric disorders. “Our studies in the United States and Denmark show that living in polluted areas, especially early in life, is predictive of mental disorders,” said computational biologist Atif Khan, the first author of the new study. “These neurological and psychiatric diseases — so costly in both financial and social terms — appear linked to the physical environment, particularly air quality.”
Researchers have long suspected that genetic and neurochemical factors interact at different levels to affect the onset, severity and progression of these illnesses. So far, scientists have found only modest associations between individual genetic variants and neuropsychiatric disease: for most common polymorphisms, disease risk increase is small, perhaps less than 10%. This fact led Andrey Rzhetsky, the Edna K. Papazian Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics, who has been studying the genetic roots of a wide variety of neuropsychiatric diseases for over two decades, to look for other molecular factors that might trigger or contribute to the disease mechanism.
While the study did not address the question of how air pollution might trigger neural effects, a large body of experimental studies in animal models suggests that polluting chemicals affect neuroinflammatory pathways and set the stage for later neurodevelopmental problems—many of which occur at the end of childhood as children become adults.
Potable-water measure requires deeper dive. A World Resource Institute report out earlier this month on 15 cities across the Global South — including parts of Latin America, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa — reveals that access to safe drinking water is often underestimated — and the challenge will only get worse. While some nations have reported improvements over the last few decades, this report finds that such national-level measurements underestimate the reality of water access inside cities, City Lab said.
Nearly two-third of households, on average, across all 15 of the Global South cities studied have access to piped water, according to the report. A deeper dive into each city, though, reveals that availability is uneven. The authors also report that in 12 cities, the government struggled to provide continuous water service — often a result of water and energy shortages, infrastructure failures, or “municipal rationing.” That, in turn, affects quality and safety, as water is more likely to be contaminated when water pressure is low, the report says.
Out of the center. American cities should follow the lead of European cities like Oslo and Brussels, and start phasing out private cars in their central cities, writes Ryan Cooper of The Week. First, cities might reserve certain streets as pedestrian and bike-only thoroughfares (and have a good deal of space left over for cafes or pocket parks, incidentally), and simultaneously upgrade their transit service, his op-ed argues. Then they might ban most private non-residential cars, and gradually start phasing out residential ones as well. (Taxis could still be allowed, but probably capped in number to keep down traffic and pollution.)
The general objective should be to make walking or biking as easy and safe as possible, and channel the new demand for non-car transport into building out frequent, high-quality transit service to every corner of the city. His key stat: On the road, a lane of highway traffic can transport about 3,000 people per hour under perfect conditions, while a subway can easily manage 10 times that — and many do even better.
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Freeway crossing for wildlife. Car-loving California has affection for the wildlife, too. Hoping to fend off the extinction of mountain lions and other species that require room to roam, transportation officials and conservationists will build a mostly privately funded wildlife crossing over a major Southern California highway, the Associated Press reported. It will give big cats, coyotes, deer, lizards, snakes and other creatures a safe route to open space and better access to food and potential mates. The span along U.S. 101 will only be the second animal overpass in a state where tunnels are more common. Officials say it will be the first of its kind near a major metropolis and the largest in the world, the report said.
Read: British Airways urges U.K. government to support green jet fuel
Serious about toy plastic. Toy seller Hasbro Inc. HAS, -0.49% said Tuesday that it will begin phasing out plastic from new product packaging starting in 2020. That will include window sheets, shrink wrap, elastic bands and more. Virtually all plastic packaging will be eliminated by the end of 2022. A separate initiative, Hasbro’s Toy Recycling Program enables consumers to send well-loved Hasbro toys and games to TerraCycle, which will recycle them into materials to be used in the construction of play spaces, flowerpots, park benches and more. Hasbro recently announced the expansion of the program to France, Germany and Brazil.
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