To effectively address escalating environmental crises, it is crucial to understand the behavioral roots of human–environment disconnection; yet, the concept of Environmental Alienation (EA) remains empirically underdeveloped. This study introduces and empirically grounds the concept of EA as a critical theoretical framework for understanding the escalating contemporary human–environment crisis. Initially, the research examines the systemic drivers of this profound detachment, analytically dissecting the underlying Value-Attitudinal-Emotional Drivers (VAEDs) that precipitate human disconnection from nature. Transitioning from theoretical drivers to empirical manifestations, the study employs a qualitative research design, conducting thematic analysis on 36 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with environmental experts to systematically identify and categorize alienated behaviors. This rigorous process yields the first comprehensive taxonomy of Environmental Alienation Behaviors (EABs), structured along a dual-axis framework comprising 15 sub-themes and 64 specific behavioral indicators. The first axis, destructive behaviors, encompasses Instrumental Appropriation, Ecological Vandalism, and Structural Malfeasance. These themes collectively manifest a dominant instrumental worldview and exacerbate the metabolic rift between human societies and ecological systems. The second axis, passive behaviors, is characterized by Ecological Indifference, Civic Withdrawal, and Abdication of Accountability, which together signify a profound and pervasive state of alienated agency. Finally, by synthesizing the analysis of systemic drivers with these behavioral manifestations, the study proposes targeted socio-cultural, educational, and governance interventions. These empirically derived insights provide an actionable and strategic roadmap for mitigating EA and supporting the transition of modern societies from a paradigm of passive observation and destructive behaviors to actively engaged ecological stewardship.
The impacts of anthropogenic climate change on food systems have been widely documented from the biophysical and economic perspectives; however, the cultural dimension remains insufficiently integrated into vulnerability assessment. In this context, we examine the case of Mexico, internationally recognized for its gastronomy and characterized by a strong biocultural foundation, high climatic variability, and significant exposure to drought. We assessed the vulnerability of 48 native crops relevant to Mexican gastronomy to drought events occurring between 1990 and 2023 and examined how this vulnerability translates into a potential risk of erosion of traditional dishes. We identified 22 native crops with a medium to high vulnerability level. The most sensitive crops were those produced predominantly under rainfed systems, whereas irrigated systems functioned as buffers, exhibiting smaller reductions in yield. Overall, crop vulnerability could potentially affect 628 traditional dishes. These findings suggest that climate change threatens not only agricultural production but also Mexico's food diversity and gastronomic heritage, underscoring the need to integrate the cultural dimension into climate assessment and adaptation strategies.
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with one of the fastest-growing populations in the world, is experiencing rapid urbanization and the emergence of a growing middle class. However, agricultural production falls short of meeting the projected food demand, hindered by a lack of access to modern energy. Improving the productivity of smallholder farmers and expanding local crop processing are vital strategies for addressing food security and improving the livelihoods of farmers. Supplying electricity for irrigation and crop processing can stimulate entrepreneurship, foster local wealth creation, and support the achievement of several Sustainable Development Goals, while improving the cost-effectiveness of clean energy plans in rural areas. This article argues that Africa's energy planning should prioritize clean and modern energy solutions aimed at accelerating economic growth extending beyond basic household services. The argument applies specifically to rural smallholder contexts in SSA, typically served by mini-grids or off-grid systems. Drawing on a synthesis of recent literature and illustrative projects from rural Tanzania, this manuscript shows that the benefits of productive energy use extend beyond mechanizing agriculture and crop processing. These initiatives enhance local economic development by integrating electricity into household business operations, such as milling and agro processing, which create jobs and diversify income, while acknowledging that local context, water governance and market access critically shape outcomes. They also enhance communication and provide critical market information, empowering rural communities. By prioritizing productive energy uses, these projects increase electricity consumption, improving the financial sustainability of electrification efforts.
Climate change and socio-economic inequities pose major challenges to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in the housing sector. Despite an urgent need for sustainable and affordable housing, traditional financial systems often hinder progress by prioritizing speculative activities and fossil-fuel lock-in over societal and ecological value creation. This research addresses this gap by investigating how a collective, bottom-up strategy can support a positive finance transformation in the affordable housing sector, enabling a future that is community-oriented, nature-positive, and climate-resilient. The study builds on the European project “Turnaround Money”. The Belgian case explored how actors involved in transformative shifts within housing and finance can co-create strategies to integrate innovative niche practices into mainstream systems. The research tailors the MISC (Mapping Innovations on the Sustainability Curve) methodological framework by specifying its distinctive steps compared to other co-creation models and by analyzing its outputs. The main contribution lies in a systematic way of designing co-creation trajectories that align affordable housing renovations with alternative conceptions of finance. The application of this framework enabled the co-creation of a systems map and the identification of strategic levers for advancing sustainable finance in the housing sector. The visualization of these direct results turned out to be valuable instruments for understanding and addressing systems complexities. Finally, the research highlighted that collaborative solutions inherently involve uncertain outcomes, as co-creation is an emergent and non-linear process. This challenges conventional planning models and underscores the need for adaptive approaches that remain open to unforeseen results.
Characterizing the motivating components of individual or group narratives can help understand how different stakeholders and communities engage with each other, and how information, values, and beliefs are used to arrive at decisions affecting social-ecological systems (SES). A set of “resonances”, factors depicting what people care about and are willing to express, is presented along with applications relating to water and environmental management in New Zealand and in the USA. The resonances describe commonly encountered preferences, beliefs, needs, and motivations (PBNM) expressed in individual and/or group narratives. Resonance analyses can be used to record expressed PBNM. Recognition of resonances could also be used, possibly in real-time and aided by AI tools, to plan, track progress, facilitate, and enhance critical reflective thinking for participatory modeling and stakeholder/community engagement processes. Resonance analyses could be applied to more transparently document, understand, and improve management and decision-making for SES resource and environmental issues over longer-term periods, even with changes in decision actors and redistributions of decision powers. The set of resonances presented in this paper is an important tool that can be used to create, curate, and add to knowledge bases and records of engagement and decision-making for natural resource and environmental issues and for SES.
