Improved Copper Circularity as a Result of Increased Material Efficiency in the U.S. Housing Stock.

Material efficiency (ME) can support rapid climate change mitigation and circular economy. Here, we comprehensively assess the circularity of ME strategies for copper use in the U.S. housing services (including residential buildings and major household appliances) by integrating use-phase material and energy demand. Although the ME strategies of more intensive floor space use and extended lifetime of appliances and buildings reduce the primary copper demand, employing these strategies increases the commonly neglected use-phase share of total copper requirements during the century from 23-28 to 22-42%. Use-phase copper requirements for home improvements have remained larger than the demand gap (copper demand minus scrap availability) for much of the century, limiting copper circularity in the U.S. housing services. Further, use-phase energy consumption can negate the benefits of ME strategies. For instance, the lifetime extension of lower-efficiency refrigerators increases the copper use and net environmental impact by increased electricity use despite reductions from less production. This suggests a need for more attention to the use phase when assessing circularity, especially for products that are material and energy intensive during use. To avoid burden shifting, policymakers should consider the entire life cycle of products supporting services when pursuing circular economy goals.

Durable Goods Drive Two-Thirds of Global Households' Final Energy Footprints.

Sustainability endorses high quality, long-lasting goods. Durable goods, however, often require substantial amounts of energy during their production and use-phase and indirectly through complementary products and services. We quantify the global household's final energy footprints (EFs) of durable goods and the complementary goods needed to operate, service and maintain durables. We calculate the EFs of 200 goods across 44 individual countries and 5 world regions for the period of 1995-2011. In 2011, we find 68% of the total global household's EF (218 EJ) is durable-related broken down as follows: 10% is due to the production of durables per se, 7% is embodied in goods complementary to durables (consumables and services) and 51% is operational energy. At the product level, the highest durable-related EFs are: transport goods (148-648 MJ/cap), housing goods (40-811 MJ/cap), electric appliances (34-181 MJ/cap), and "gas stoves and furnaces" (40-100 MJ/cap). Between 1995 and 2011, the global household EF increased by 28% (48 EJ), of which 72% was added by durable-related energy. Globally, a 10% income growth corresponded to an increase in EF by 9% in durables, 11% in complementary consumables and 13% in complementary services-with even higher elasticities in the emerging economies. The average EF of the emerging economies (35 GJ/cap) is 2.5 times lower than in advanced economies (86 GJ/cap). Efficiency gains were detected in 47 out of 49 regions, but only 16 achieved net energy reductions. The large share of durable-related EF across regions (40-88%) confirms the dominance of durables in driving EFs, but the diversity of patterns suggests that policy and social factors influence durable-dependency. Demand-side solutions targeting ownership and inter-linkages between durables and complements are key to reduce global energy demand.

A Framework for Modelling Consumption-Based Energy Demand and Emission Pathways.

Energy demand in global climate scenarios is typically derived for sectors - such as buildings, transportation, and industry - rather than from underlying services that could drive energy use in all sectors. This limits the potential to model household consumption and lifestyles as mitigation options through their impact on economy-wide energy demand. We present a framework to estimate the economy-wide energy requirements and carbon emissions associated with future household consumption, by linking Industrial Ecology tools and Integrated Assessment Models (IAM). We apply the framework to assess final energy and emission pathways for meeting three essential and energy-intensive dimensions of basic well-being in India: food, housing and mobility. We show, for example, that nutrition-enhancing dietary changes can reduce emissions by a similar amount as meeting future basic mobility in Indian cities with public transportation. The relative impact of energy demand reduction measures compared to decarbonization differs across these services, with housing having the lowest and food the highest. This framework provides complementary insights to those obtained from IAM by considering a broader set of consumption and well-being-related interventions, and illustrating trade-offs between demand and supply-side options in climate stabilization scenarios.

Effects of scanner acoustic noise on intrinsic brain activity during auditory stimulation.

INTRODUCTION: Although the effects of scanner background noise (SBN) during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have been extensively investigated for the brain regions involved in auditory processing, its impact on other types of intrinsic brain activity has largely been neglected. The present study evaluated the influence of SBN on a number of intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) during auditory stimulation by comparing the results obtained using sparse temporal acquisition (STA) with those using continuous acquisition (CA). METHODS: Fourteen healthy subjects were presented with classical music pieces in a block paradigm during two sessions of STA and CA. A volume-matched CA dataset (CAm) was generated by subsampling the CA dataset to temporally match it with the STA data. Independent component analysis was performed on the concatenated STA-CAm datasets, and voxel data, time courses, power spectra, and functional connectivity were compared. RESULTS: The ICA revealed 19 ICNs; the auditory, default mode, salience, and frontoparietal networks showed greater activity in the STA. The spectral peaks in 17 networks corresponded to the stimulation cycles in the STA, while only five networks displayed this correspondence in the CA. The dorsal default mode and salience networks exhibited stronger correlations with the stimulus waveform in the STA. CONCLUSIONS: SBN appeared to influence not only the areas of auditory response but also the majority of other ICNs, including attention and sensory networks. Therefore, SBN should be regarded as a serious nuisance factor during fMRI studies investigating intrinsic brain activity under external stimulation or task loads.

Growth and inequality trade-offs to eradicate absolute poverty.

The relationship between growth, inequality and poverty remains elusive, despite considerable scholarship. To what extent can governments rely on growth to eradicate poverty without reducing inequality? We derive a closed-form relationship between a minimum income threshold, changes in the Gini index of income inequality and average national income required to meet this target, independent of the form of income distribution. We develop a generalized form of redistribution and validate it against historical changes in inequality. We use this formulation to illustrate feasible growth-redistribution strategies to raise entire populations above the International Poverty Line ($1.90/day) by 2030, the Sustainable Development Goal 1, in two selective countries: India and Rwanda. We show that meeting this target would require unprecedented rates of both growth and inequality reduction in Rwanda. India could not eradicate acute poverty by 2030 with growth alone, but it could with only a modest reduction in inequality.

Decent Living Standards: Material Prerequisites for Human Wellbeing.

We define a set of universal, irreducible and essential set of material conditions for achieving basic human wellbeing, along with indicators and quantitative thresholds, which can be operationalized for societies based on local customs and preferences. We draw support for this decent living standard (DLS) from different accounts of basic justice, including the capability approach and basic needs. The DLS goes beyond existing multidimensional poverty indicators by comprehensively addressing living conditions and the means of social participation. The DLS offers a normative basis to develop minimum wage and reference budgets, and to assess the environmental impacts, such as climate change, of eradicating poverty.