The growing geographic disconnect between consumption of goods, the extraction and processing of resources, and the environmental impacts associated with production activities makes it crucial to factor global trade into sustainability assessments. Using an empirically validated environmentally extended global trade model, we examine the relationship between two key resources underpinning economies and human well-being-energy and freshwater. A comparison of three energy sectors (petroleum, gas, and electricity) reveals that freshwater consumption associated with gas and electricity production is largely confined within the territorial boundaries where demand originates. This finding contrasts with petroleum, which exhibits a varying ratio of territorial to international freshwater consumption, depending on the origin of demand. For example, although the United States and China have similar demand associated with the petroleum sector, international freshwater consumption is three times higher for the former than the latter. Based on mapping patterns of freshwater consumption associated with energy sectors at subnational scales, our analysis also reveals concordance between pressure on freshwater resources associated with energy production and freshwater scarcity in a number of river basins globally. These energy-driven pressures on freshwater resources in areas distant from the origin of energy demand complicate the design of policy to ensure security of fresh water and energy supply. Although much of the debate around energy is focused on greenhouse gas emissions, our findings highlight the need to consider the full range of consequences of energy production when designing policy.energy | freshwater | nexus | MRIO | sustainability M eeting society's demand for fresh water and energy has been identified as a major challenge for society over the coming decades (1, 2). Most of the estimated 35 million km 3 of fresh water that exists globally is inaccessible (3). Recent estimates put renewable freshwater resources in the region of between 40,000 and 66,000 km 3 ·y −1 (4, 5), of which ∼10% is appropriated for human use (6-8). Although this global total might be considered to fall within the "safe operating space" of humanity (9), it hides substantial mismatches between availability and demand in different regions (7,8,10) and associated pressures on renewable freshwater resources (1, 11). Given that freshwater is central to maintain ecosystem function (12) and biodiversity (13), pressures on freshwater resources can result in the loss of ecosystem services (14-16) and associated benefits to society, ultimately impacting human wellbeing both directly and indirectly (17-19).Fresh water is used by the energy sector along the complete supply chain from extraction and conversion of raw material through to generation of power (2,20), such that limits on access to fresh water through physical scarcity or regulatory control can have significant implications for security of energy supply (21). At the same time, energy is need...
[1] A high-resolution record of Mg/Ca ratios from the planktonic foraminifer Globigerina bulloides has been produced for IMAGES core MD99-2251 from the subpolar North Atlantic. The record extends from the Younger Dryas-Preboreal transition through the Holocene at $70 year resolution, with a more detailed section at $20 year resolution through the interval encompassing the major cooling episode 8200 years ago. Mg/Ca derived temperatures show significant variations through the Holocene, with surface temperatures ranging from $8 to 13°C. The onset of the Holocene is marked by an abrupt warming, with a further increase in early Holocene temperatures occurring prior to 9.5 ka. This is followed by a midHolocene period of cooler and more stable conditions before temperatures show a stepped increase at $3.5 ka. The late Holocene period has the highest temperatures of the entire interglacial but also exhibits coolings of 2-3°C approximately every 500 years. Variations of this magnitude typify the high-frequency component of temperature variability and do not seem to be restricted to the 8.2 ka event or the early Holocene, when stronger freshwater forcing associated with the decay of the ice sheets might be anticipated. However, episodes of enhanced drift ice input to North Atlantic are coincident with many of the Mg/Ca temperature minima over the last 6 ka. The long-term warming trend and stepped increase in temperature at $3.5 ka are consistent with other planktonic foraminiferal records and appear to reflect regional-scale changes in the atmospheric forcing of the North Atlantic Current during periods of rapid climate change. Alternatively, changes in ecology may contribute to the Holocene Mg/Ca record, either by species changing their depth habitat or by a shift in seasonal production patterns.
Abstract. Throughout the Pleistocene the Earth has experienced pronounced glacial-interglacial cycles, which have been debated for decades. One concept widely held is that during most glacials only the Laurentide-Eurasian ice sheets across North America and Northwest Eurasia became expansive, while Northeast Siberia-Beringia remained ice-sheet-free. However, the recognition of glacial landforms and deposits on Northeast Siberia-Beringia and off the Siberian continental shelf is beginning to call into question this paradigm. Here, we combine climate and ice sheet modelling with well-dated paleoclimate records from the mid-to-high latitude North Pacific to demonstrate the episodic occurrences of an ice sheet across Northeast Siberia-Beringia. Our simulations first show that the paleoclimate records are irreconcilable with the established paradigm of Laurentide-Eurasia-only ice sheets, and then reveal that a Beringian ice sheet over Northeast Siberia-Beringia causes feedbacks between atmosphere and ocean, the result of which better explains these climate records from around the North Pacific during the past four glacial-interglacial cycles. Our simulations propose an alternative scenario for NH ice sheet evolution, which involves the rapid waxing and waning of the Beringian ice sheet alongside the growth of the Laurentide-Eurasian ice sheets. The new scenario settles the long-standing discrepancies between the direct glacial evidence and the climate evolution from around the mid-to-high latitude North Pacific. It depicts a high complexity in glacial climates and has important implications for our understanding of the dispersal of prehistoric humans through Beringia into North America.
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