Futures Thinking and Sustainable Development

Recent estimates indicate that primary stocks of P will last at least a century. But the growing demand for food, the vulnerability of mineral commodities to market forces, and the geopolitical implications of reserves concentrated in places such as Morocco and China mean that “closing the loop” on our phosphorus use is critical to sustaining and securing food supplies into the next few decades.

Simplifying wastewater treatment by separating and capturing it before it enters the sewer will play an important role in making this possible. So why aren’t we all doing it already?

Seed and crop management company Syngenta Crop Protection LLC has petitioned U.S. EPA to increase the legal tolerance for a neonicotinoid pesticide residue in several crops -- in one case increasing the acceptable level by 400 times, according to a notice in today's Federal Register.

To provide an overview of the shared structural causes of obesity and climate change, and analyse policies that could be implemented in Australia to both equitably reduce obesity rates and contribute to mitigating climate change.

Policies with potential co-benefits fit within three broad categories: those to replace car use with low-emissions, active modes of transport; those to improve diets and reduce emissions from the food system; and macro-level economic policies to reduce the over-consumption of food and fossil fuel energy.

Given the complex causes of both problems, it is argued that a full spectrum of complementary strategies across different sectors should be utilised.