Neglected implications of land-use and land-cover changes on the climate-health nexus.

Climate change can substantially affect temperature-related mortality and morbidity, especially under high green-house gas emission pathways. Achieving the Paris Agreement goals require not only drastic reductions in fossil fuel-based emissions but also land-use and land-cover changes (LULCC), such as reforestation and afforestation. LULCC has been mainly analysed in the context of land-based mitigation and food security. However, growing scientific evidence shows that LULCC can also substantially alter climate through biogeophysical effects. Little is known about the consequential impacts on human health. LULCC-related impact research should broaden its scope by including the human health impacts. LULCC are relevant to several global agendas (i.e. Sustainable Development Goals). Thus, collaboration across research communities and stronger stakeholder engagement are required to address this knowledge gap.

Overcoming global inequality is critical for land-based mitigation in line with the Paris Agreement.

Transformation pathways for the land sector in line with the Paris Agreement depend on the assumption of globally implemented greenhouse gas (GHG) emission pricing, and in some cases also on inclusive socio-economic development and sustainable land-use practices. In such pathways, the majority of GHG emission reductions in the land system is expected to come from low- and middle-income countries, which currently account for a large share of emissions from agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU). However, in low- and middle-income countries the economic, financial and institutional barriers for such transformative changes are high. Here, we show that if sustainable development in the land sector remained highly unequal and limited to high-income countries only, global AFOLU emissions would remain substantial throughout the 21st century. Our model-based projections highlight that overcoming global inequality is critical for land-based mitigation in line with the Paris Agreement. While also a scenario purely based on either global GHG emission pricing or on inclusive socio-economic development would achieve the stringent emissions reductions required, only the latter ensures major co-benefits for other Sustainable Development Goals, especially in low- and middle-income regions.

Impact of the COronaVIrus Disease 2019 lockdown on hand and upper limb emergencies: experience of a referred university trauma hand centre in Paris, France.

PURPOSE: The lockdown imposed in France to cope with the COronaVIrus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has led to major changes in the lifestyle of French citizens. The aim of our study was to study its impact on activity related to emergencies in hand and upper limb trauma in comparison to the same reference period in 2019. MATERIAL AND METHODS: All consecutive patients consulting for upper limb injury requiring urgent care at Georges-Pompidou European Hospital (HEGP), France, during the lockdown period (case group) and the equivalent period in 2019 (control group) were included. In each group, the type of accident, the anatomical location of the injury, and the treatment were reported and compared. RESULTS: Two hundred seventy-five patients were included in the case group in comparison to 784 patients in the control group. We observed a two-third decrease in the rate of upper limb emergencies (- 64.9%) in particular a drastic drop in the rate of road, work, and leisure accidents (10.4% vs 14.3%, p = 0.1151; 10.0% vs 22.6%, p < 0.0001; 13.1% vs 30.8%, p < 0.0001, respectively), and a clear increase in domestic accidents (66.5% vs 32.3%, p < 0.0001). The aetiologies were more dominated by lacerations of soft tissues (48.4%, vs 38.3%, p = 0.0034) and infections (8.7% vs 5.1%, p = 0.0299) with an increase in the indications for surgical management (51.2% vs 36.9%, p < 0.0001). Conversely, we observed fewer consultations for joint injuries (20.7% vs 30.7%, p = 0.0015) and fractures (22.2% vs 25.9%, p = 0.2210). CONCLUSION: The lockdown imposed in France has changes the etiologies and the management of hand and upper limb emergencies.

Warming of hot extremes alleviated by expanding irrigation.

Irrigation affects climate conditions - and especially hot extremes - in various regions across the globe. Yet how these climatic effects compare to other anthropogenic forcings is largely unknown. Here we provide observational and model evidence that expanding irrigation has dampened historical anthropogenic warming during hot days, with particularly strong effects over South Asia. We show that irrigation expansion can explain the negative correlation between global observed changes in daytime summer temperatures and present-day irrigation extent. While global warming increases the likelihood of hot extremes almost globally, irrigation can regionally cancel or even reverse the effects of all other forcings combined. Around one billion people (0.79-1.29) currently benefit from this dampened increase in hot extremes because irrigation massively expanded throughout the 20[Formula: see text] century. Our results therefore highlight that irrigation substantially reduced human exposure to warming of hot extremes but question whether this benefit will continue towards the future.