CSDE Affiliate Dr. Gregory Bratman co-authored work with colleagues in Nature Climate Change, titled “Leveraging neuroscience for climate change research“. Anthropogenic climate change poses a substantial threat to societal living conditions. Here, authors argue that neuroscience can substantially contribute to the fight against climate change and provide a framework and a roadmap to organize and prioritize neuroscience research in this domain. They outline how neuroscience can be used to: (1) investigate the negative impact of climate change on the human brain; (2) identify ways to adapt; (3) understand the neural substrates of decisions with pro-environmental and harmful outcomes; and (4) create neuroscience-based insights into communication and intervention strategies that aim to promote climate action. The paper is also a call to action for neuroscientists to join broader scientific efforts to tackle the existential environmental threats Earth is currently facing.

CSDE Affiliate Dr. Isabelle Cohen had two grants funded by the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) to support collaborative projects in Ghana. The first, Solar Lantern Program: Sensitization and Willingness to Pay by Rural Households in Ghana, is a collaborative project with Hamdiyah Alhassan, Ishaque Mahama, Isaac Doku, Oyeteju Odufuwa, and the Ministry of Energy in Ghana. The second, Impact of environmental, health, and safety sensitization on Liquefied Petroleum Gas usage in Ghana, is a collaborative project with Isaac Doku, Hamdiyah Alhassan, Mohammed Nuhu Mujtaba, Genesis Kollie and the Ministry of Energy in Ghana.

CSDE Affiliate Dr. Mia Bennett (Geography) co-authored research led by her former PhD student, Dr. Xiaofeng Liu, in Eurasian Geography and Economics, titled “Going out and going green: NGOs in the environmental governance of Global China“. While the roles of actors such as the state and state-owned enterprises within “Global China” elicit significant scholarly attention, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are relatively less critiqued. These members of Chinese civil society are playing an increasingly important role in the environmental governance of the country’s overseas activities. By analyzing firsthand observations and interviews and secondhand materials produced by NGOs and the Chinese government, this article traces how and why Chinese NGOs seek to “green” China’s engagement beyond its borders.

First, the authors identify four types of Chinese NGOs with a variety of state- and non-state founders. Then, they examine how NGOs’ objectives and state policies jointly shape the way they “go out.” As both knowledge and political actors, Chinese NGOs accumulate, produce, and disseminate knowledge related to Global China’s environmental issues, across domestic and international spaces. Though the specific strategies pursued by NGOs depend on their type, overall, their alignment with Chinese state policies and interests constitutes a crucial condition for their success. This research offers new insights into Chinese non-state actors’ expanding participation in international activities. As the country’s civil organizations endeavor to exert influence both within and beyond China’s borders, the effects of their interventions on global governance may grow.

CSDE Affiliate Dr. Alison Roxby (Global Health and Medicine) recently published two articles with colleagues on bacterial vaginosis amongst adolescent girls and women in Kenya. Bacterial vaginosis is a risk factor for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. The first article is published in BMJ Open, titled “Longitudinal assessment of bacterial vaginosis prior to and during incident pregnancy: an observational study in Kenyan adolescent girls and young women“, where authors sought to determine bacterial vaginosis (BV) status at multiple time points among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) and assess the impact of pregnancy on their BV status. The second article is published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, titled “Low prevalence of bacterial vaginosis in Kenyan adolescent girls and rapid incidence after first sex“. This study aimed to describe bacterial vaginosis in younger African women, before and after first sex, and to determine the incidence of bacterial vaginosis and significant correlates of bacterial vaginosis incidence and recurrence.