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Gridded multibeam bathymetry of the Saudi Arabian Red Sea collected during the 2022 Red Sea Decade Expedition (funded by the National Center for Wildlife, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). The QPS Qimera software license was provided by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) through baseline funding awarded to Francesca Benzoni (BAS/1/1090-01-01). The dataset includes one 40 m resolution model covering the full deep-water survey area, acquired by the Kongsberg EM 304 aboard the M/V OceanXplorer (OCX), and four 5 m resolution models of shallow-water bathymetry acquired by the Teledyne RESON SeaBat T50-P aboard Metalshark38 (MS), one per expedition Leg (L1 to L4).

Climate change is increasingly destabilizing affordable housing systems by transforming occasional disaster-related damage into a persistent driver of housing loss and displacement. Low-income households and renters are disproportionately exposed to climate-related hazards because historically affordable housing has often been developed in areas vulnerable to flooding, extreme heat, and wildfires. In the United States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administers major climate adaptation initiatives through its Hazard Mitigation Assistance programs. Although these programs are primarily designed to reduce disaster risk and financial losses, their broader implications for housing affordability and community stability remain insufficiently examined. This narrative policy review synthesizes interdisciplinary research on disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation, housing affordability, and equity governance to examine how FEMA hazard mitigation funding influences affordable housing outcomes in climate-vulnerable communities. The review finds that widely used mitigation strategies, particularly property acquisition and demolition, can unintentionally reduce the supply of affordable housing and displace tenants without guaranteeing replacement housing. In contrast, in-situ mitigation and community-scale resilience measures that could preserve housing stability are less frequently implemented. Institutional barriers further complicate the integration of housing affordability goals within hazard mitigation policy. These barriers include benefit–cost analysis frameworks that undervalue social outcomes, fragmented governance between emergency management and housing institutions, and short planning horizons that overlook long-term housing impacts. By synthesizing these insights, the article reframes hazard mitigation as an investment in social infrastructure and proposes a housing-centered framework for climate adaptation policy. The findings highlight that preserving affordable housing and preventing displacement must become central objectives within hazard mitigation strategies to ensure equitable and effective climate resilience. Without housing stability, climate adaptation programs risk exacerbating the very vulnerabilities they are intended to address.

Climate change constitutes a major market failure because greenhouse gas emissions are not priced to reflect their social costs. Carbon pricing has become a central policy instrument, yet its effectiveness varies across contexts. This review evaluates the performance of carbon taxes and emissions trading systems by examining their environmental, economic, and equity outcomes. The analysis applies a systematic review framework covering peer-reviewed studies, meta-analyses, and international policy assessments published between 2008 and 2025. Evidence is synthesized across three dimensions: emissions reductions, innovation and structural change, and distributional impacts. The literature consistently shows that carbon pricing reduces emissions when price signals are strong, credible, and increase predictably over time. Jurisdictions with rising tax schedules or progressively tightening emissions caps achieve the most durable mitigation. Carbon pricing also stimulates low-carbon innovation and supports long-term structural change, especially when combined with complementary policies. Distributional outcomes vary, but equity improves significantly when revenues are returned through rebates or tax reductions. Overall effectiveness depends more on design quality and policy coherence than on whether pricing is delivered through taxes or trading systems. Credible long-term price paths, broad sectoral coverage, transparent governance, and equitable revenue use are essential conditions for achieving sustained environmental and socio-economic benefits.

Energy burden, defined as the proportion of household income spent on residential energy, represents an important yet frequently overlooked dimension of housing affordability. Conventional affordability metrics typically focus on rent or mortgage payments while neglecting the ongoing costs of energy consumption, which obscures structural forms of housing insecurity that disproportionately affect low-income and marginalized households. This paper presents a narrative review of interdisciplinary scholarship from energy policy, housing studies, urban planning, and environmental justice to examine how housing inequality functions as a systemic driver of energy burden. Drawing on the environmental justice framework of distributive, procedural, and recognitional justice, the review demonstrates that energy burden is not simply a household-level financial challenge but a structural outcome shaped by unequal housing markets, aging and inefficient housing stock, tenure insecurity, and fragmented policy governance. The synthesis also shows that existing housing and energy policies, particularly energy efficiency incentives and affordability criteria, often privilege homeowners while excluding renters, informal housing residents, and other vulnerable groups. By integrating insights from environmental justice theory with housing policy debates, this study reframes affordable housing as a critical site for addressing energy inequality. The paper concludes by proposing a novel justice-informed conceptual framework that repositions affordable housing as a primary site for energy justice intervention and provides a roadmap for more equitable housing and energy policy design.

Plastic pollution and its impact on water-reliant avifauna is a global, pervasive issue. We evaluated necropsy data of Gavia immer (Common Loon) from freshwater and marine environments in the northeastern US from 2011 to 2022, and found 16.2% (106/654) had ingested plastic items (macroplastics). We examined Common Loons stranded from 2020 to 2022, quantified macroscopic plastic items in detail, and processed the ingesta for suspected microplastics. We found macroplastics in 20.7% (11/53) and suspected microplastic particles, predominately clear fibers, in 100% (37/37) of the Common Loons. While we found no evidence that sex, mass, or geography correlated with microplastic load, both macroplastics and suspected microplastics were widespread and prevalent in Common Loon ingesta in the northeastern US. © 2025 Humboldt Field Research Institute. All rights reserved.

Marine calcifiers are amongst the most vulnerable organisms to ocean acidification due to reduction in the availability of carbonate ions for skeletal/shell deposition. However, there are limited long-term studies on the possible impacts of increased pCO2 on these taxa. A 7month CO2 perturbation experiment was performed on one of the most calcium carbonate dependent species, the Antarctic brachiopod Liothyrella uva, which inhabits the Southern Ocean where carbonate ion saturation levels are amongst the lowest on Earth. The effects of the predicted environmental conditions in 2050 and 2100 on the growth rate and ability to repair shell in L. uva were tested with four treatments; a low temperature control (0°C, pH7.98), a pH control (2°C, pH8.05), mid-century scenario (2°C, pH7.75) and end-century scenario (2°C, pH7.54). Environmental change impacts on shell repair are rarely studied, but here repair was not affected by either acidified conditions or temperature. Growth rate was also not impacted by low pH. Elevated temperature did, however, increase growth rates. The ability of L. uva to continue, and even increase shell production in warmer and acidified seawater suggests that this species can acclimate to these combined stressors and generate suitable conditions for shell growth at the site of calcification.

This study investigated the effects of long-term incubation to near-future combined warming (+2 °C) and ocean acidification (−0.3 and −0.5 pH units) stressors, relative to current conditions (−0.3 °C and pH 8.0), on the energetics of food processing in the Antarctic sea urchin, Sterechinus neumayeri. After an extended incubation of 40 months, energy absorbed, energy lost through respiration and lost as waste were monitored through two feeding cycles. Growth parameters (mass of somatic and gonad tissues and the CHN content of gonad) were also measured. There were no significant effects of combined ocean acidification (OA) and temperature stressors on the growth of somatic or reproductive tissue. Despite more food being consumed in the low temperature control, once food processing and maintenance costs were subtracted, there were no significant effects of treatment on the scope for growth. The biggest significant differences were between amounts of food consumed during the two feeding cycles. More food was consumed by the low temperature (0 °C) control animals, indicating a potential effect of the changed conditions on digestive efficiency. Also, in November, more food was consumed, with a higher absorption efficiency, which resulted in a higher scope for growth in November than September and may reflect increased energetic needs associated with a switch to summer physiology. The effect of endogenous seasonal cycles and environmental variability on organism capacity is discussed.

Surface seawaters are becoming more acidic due to the absorption of rising anthropogenic CO2. Marine calcifiers are considered to be the most vulnerable organisms to ocean acidification due to the reduction in the availability of carbonate ions for shell or skeletal production. Rhychonelliform brachiopods are potentially one of the most calcium carbonate-dependent groups of marine organisms because of their large skeletal content. Little is known, however, about the effects of lowered pH on these taxa. A CO2 perturbation experiment was performed on the New Zealand terebratulide brachiopod Calloria inconspicua to investigate the effects of pH conditions predicted for 2050 and 2100 on the growth rate and ability to repair shell. Three treatments were used: an ambient pH control (pH 8.16), a mid-century scenario (pH 7.79), and an end-century scenario (pH 7.62). The ability to repair shell was not affected by acidified conditions with >80% of all damaged individuals at the start of the experiment completing shell repair after 12 weeks. Growth rates in undamaged individuals >3 mm in length were also not affected by lowered pH conditions, whereas undamaged individuals <3 mm grew faster at pH 7.62 than the control. The capability of C. inconspicua to continue shell production and repair under acidified conditions suggests that this species has a robust control over the calcification process, where suitable conditions at the site of calcification can be generated across a range of pH conditions.

Fieldwork is often cited as one of the most important and effective parts of geography education, despite increasing scrutiny over its environmental and financial cost. As a result, it is imperative that any overseas fieldwork is as impactful as possible, enabling deep experiential learning. Here, we investigate the success of a joint field trip (Liverpool John Moores University, UK and Southern Connecticut State University, USA) to East Iceland. Such field trips are rare but have the potential to be extremely impactful on both cohorts of students. We outline the origins of the field trip, the considerations taken into account during planning, and the student skills we embedded into teaching. Surveys and interviews demonstrated that the field trip was highly successful, with students reporting excellent development of environmental and global awareness as well as research and leadership skills. Students also developed strong, lasting social networks, including those in the alternate university, and in Iceland. Cohorts responded similarly, suggesting that the trip presents similar opportunities to all students. We demonstrate that undertaking a joint field trip can deliver huge benefits to students, becoming a “perspective changing, and a once in a lifetime opportunity” affecting future study and career choices.

First published in 1990, Neptune’s Domain is organized around one unifying theme: the geographic aspects of the new Law of the Sea as expressed primarily in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The first two chapters provide essential background information. Chapters 3 through 9 explain relevant provisions of the Convention. The next two chapters cover topics excluded from the Convention, and the last three chapters are more analytical and future-oriented. All students and scholars concerned with the human use of the marine environment will welcome this book, whether they be geographers, political scientists or lawyers. © Martin Ira Glassner 1990. All rights reserved.

The purpose of this chapter is to preliminarily explore the fruitfulness of understanding industrial heritage sites through the lens of environmental catastrophe in the 21st century. While geographers have been increasingly exploring heritage over the past few decades, concerned with its significance in terms of cultural and social representations, as well as an economic commodity, and industrial heritage has become more widely recognized as a key aspect of identity in the cities of the westernized world, research has overlooked the fascinating nexus between the industrial production marked in the sites of industrial heritage and the environmental outcomes of those processes. There is no concern more pressing in the present than the reality of climate change and environmental catastrophe and so this presentation considers exploring the interconnections between remembering the social and historical significance of industrial heritage sites and recognizing the ways these sites threaten our future. Through a preliminary case study of English Station, a disused power station on the Mill River in New Haven, Connecticut, I explore how this site represents the aspirations and progress of New Haven as an industrial, electrified, automobile city, as well as the current environmental catastrophes on our doorstep.

The vulnerability of the global economy has been starkly exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Longer term thinking and new approaches to development and prosperity are urgently required. In this paper, we forward a series of principles on which economic and development policy for the post-COVID era should be developed. These are outlined as five ‘pillars’ from which to rebuild the global economy, based on principles of a shared sustainable prosperity. These pillars are: (I) an ecological prosperity; (II) a decarbonized economy; (III) a shared cost burden; (IV) a governance new deal; (V) a just resilience. In outlining the ‘5 pillars’ we explicitly recognize that sustainability cannot simply be a ‘green’, or environmental concern. Social and economic dimensions of sustainability are key for societal stability and continuity. This is made ever starker in the context of the fundamental economic and societal restructuring forced by the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, the pillars represent a triple bottom line framing of sustainability, of mutually supportive domains of economic, social and environmental well-being. The five pillars are informed by principles of distributive and procedural justice, recognizing the importance and advantages of real community engagement and empowerment and giving due respect and deference to the ecological carrying capacity of our fragile planet. We argue that the post-COVID-19 re-build represents a once-in-a generation opportunity to markedly shift developed trajectories to more sustainable pathways, to rebalance the domains of sustainability, and in the process, to address longer-term crises including those of climate and biodiversity loss.

Since 31 October 2018, Extinction Rebellion has advocated in numerous examples of civil disobedience across the UK in an attempt to call for further action to address climate change. Following this example, similar activism has also been seen across Europe and North America. Such activism falls within the context of climate justice (the framing of climate change as an ethical and political issue); given the disproportionate impacts that climate change has on the most vulnerable people in society, e.g., low-income communities, women, and future generations. What is noticeable about Extinction Rebellion is its ability to place climate change on the social agenda, a task that has proven difficult in the age of denialism, skepticism, false-balance media reporting, and far-right politics. With reference to recent examples of civil disobedience and protests in 2019, this paper evaluates how climate justice movements, specifically Extinction Rebellion, change meanings of urban landscapes into becoming more contested places and disrupt the consciousness of everyday routines toward sustainability. This disruption and contested nature is brought about through changing the sociocultural dynamics of urban landscapes during, and after, such protests. The meanings of urban landscapes thus change from being viewed as purely sites of materialist consumption to sites of initial resistance against business-as-usual approaches to climate change leading to changes in policy. Through substantial public engagement with the narrative of climate justice, civil disobedience protests, and urban art, it is clear that urban areas “held” for a number of successive days have started to be perceived differently. This article concludes with implications for subsequent spatial disruption and civil disobedience advocating for stronger climate policy.

Despite repeated calls for more inclusive practices, approaches used to address current challenges within the ocean-climate nexus do not sufficiently account for the complexity of the human-social-ecological system. So far, this has prevented efficient and just decision-making and policies. We propose to shift towards systems-informed decision making, which values transdisciplinary system-thinking and cumulative impact assessments, and encourages multi-system collaboration among decision-makers in order to address the recurring technicality of policies and to foster just solutions that account for the needs of varied actors across the sustainable development spectrum.

The United States has only recently begun investing in commercial-scale offshore wind energy (OWE). Although the United States is slow to progress, it is uniquely positioned to build on the existing knowledge that coastal European countries have applied for their own energy transitions. In this study, we analyze how federal and regional plans for expanding the OWE sector in the United States brought to the surface decade-long tensions related to multi-scale governance mismatches, jurisdictional conflicts, and unclear pathways for implementing national industrial policies. Drawing upon the European experience with OWE, we employ a dynamic multi-level perspective framework enriched by socio-ecological elements to examine the United States energy transition through its most promising technology. From our framework we identify six categories of OWE developments characterized by both unique and shared elements between the United States and European coastal countries. These elements are: (1) role of local communities, (2) governance structures, (3) multi-scale government interactions, (4) regional socioeconomic structures, (5) socio-ecological impacts, and (6) relationships with existing industries. Drawing upon our analysis, we identify and conceptually map four research areas in need of further development for the United States and the research community— (1) knowledge, (2) potential, (3) adaptation, and (4) learning. These insights provide critical information to ensure that the United States expansion into offshore energy generation is characterized by elements of justice, equity, and inclusive regional economic development.

This chapter introduces the 5 ‘pillars’ through which to (re-)build a shared sustainable prosperity. The five pillars aim to provide a framework through which policymakers, decision-makers, politicians, community groups and the corporate sphere might begin to consider, map out and plan for just transitions in their domains. The theoretical framing combines socio-technical transitions, social justice and just transitions perspectives; the novelty of our proposed approach here is the further inclusion of resilience perspectives, to account for the shifting relations between sustainability and resilience. Our understanding of sustainability aligns with a ‘strong sustainability’ perspective, whereby ecological limits represent ‘hard’ limits to development, limits which need to be acknowledged and respected.