COVID-19 greatly challenges the human health sector, and has resulted in a large amount of medical waste that poses various potential threats to the environment. In this study, we compiled relevant data released by official agencies and the media, and conducted data supplementation based on earlier studies to calculate the net value of medical waste produced in the Hubei Province due to COVID-19 with the help of a neural network model. Next, we reviewed the data related to the environmental impact of medical waste per unit and designed four scenarios to estimate the environmental impact of new medical waste generated during the pandemic. The results showed that a medical waste generation rate of 0.5 kg/bed/day due to COVID-19 resulted in a net increase of medical waste volume by about 3366.99 tons in the Hubei Province. In the four scenario assumptions, i.e., if the medical waste resulting from COVID-19 is completely incinerated, it will have a large impact on the air quality. If it is disposed by distillation sterilization, it will produce a large amount of wastewater and waste residue. Based on the results of the study, we propose three policy recommendations: strict control of medical wastewater discharge, reduction and transformation of the emitted acidic gases, and attention to the emission of metallic nickel in exhaust gas and chloride in soil. These policy recommendations provide a scientific basis for controlling medical waste pollution.

COVID-19 greatly challenges human beings in the health sector and leaves behind a large amount of medical waste that poses many potential threats to the environment. In this paper, we compiled relevant data released by official agencies and the media, and conducted data supplementation based on previous studies to calculate the net value of medical waste production in Hubei Province during COVID-19 with the help of a neural network model. Then, we reviewed the data related to the environmental impact of medical waste per unit and designed four scenarios to estimate the environmental impact of new medical waste generated during the epidemic. The results showed that at a medical waste generation rate of\ 0.\ 5\ kg/(\ bed\ \cdot\ d) COVID-19 resulted in a net increase in medical waste volume of about 3366.99 tons in Hubei Province. In the four scenario assumptions, if the medical waste brought by COVID-19 is completely incinerated, it will have a large impact on the air quality. If it is disposed by distillation sterilization, it will produce a large amount of wastewater and waste residue. Based on the results of the study, three policy recommendations are proposed in this paper: strict control of medical wastewater discharge, reduction and transformation of the emitted acidic gases, and attention to the emission of metallic nickel in exhaust gas and chloride in soil. These policy recommendations provide a scientific basis for controlling medical waste pollution.

Will climate change experience shape people’s climate change perception? To examine the evidences, we performed a pre-registered meta-analysis using data from 302 studies, covering 351,378 observations. Our results find that climate change experience only has a weak positive correlation with climate change awareness in general (r = 0.098, 95% CI 0.0614, 0.1348), and the effect sizes vary considerably across different climate events. General hazard and temperature anomalies experiences have significant correlations, but other events exhibit no or neglectable effects. The moderator analysis showed that self-reported studies result in higher correlations, whereas studies based on victims’ actual experiences report lower effect sizes. Our study suggests that people’s climate change experiences may not be effective in shaping their awareness of climate change, which is likely due to people’s attribution style and adaptability. The importance of proactive education thus is further emphasized to raise the awareness of climate change.

This study maps the shifts in subnational climate change issue priority and risk perceptions in China, based on datasets from two large-scale surveys conducted over 13 years. Our findings reveal significant increases in climate change issue priority and perceived impact (19% and 13%, respectively) at the national scale but wider regional disparities. We highlight the needs for tailored and targeted communication strategies to mitigate the spatial mismatch between climate change perception and risk exposure.

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