Three interrelated world trends may be exacerbating emerging zoonotic risks: income growth, urbanization, and globalization. Income growth is associated with rising animal protein consumption in developing countries, which increases the conversion of wild lands to livestock production, and hence the probability of zoonotic emergence. Urbanization implies the greater concentration and connectedness of people, which increases the speed at which new infections are spread. Globalization-the closer integration of the world economy-has facilitated pathogen spread among countries through the growth of trade and travel. Highrisk areas for the emergence and spread of infectious disease are where these three trends intersect with predisposing socioecological conditions including the presence of wild disease reservoirs, agricultural practices that increase contact between wildlife and livestock, and cultural practices that increase contact between humans, wildlife, and livestock. Such an intersection occurs in China, which has been a ''cradle'' of zoonoses from the Black Death to avian influenza and SARS. Disease management in China is thus critical to the mitigation of global zoonotic risks.

China is the world's largest consumer of coal-at present accounting for 50% of global demand, thus having a worldwide impact economically and environmentally 1. Between 2000 and 2013, consumption rose from 1.36 billion tons to over 4.24 billion tons, at an average annual rate of 12% (Figure 1) 2. This prodigious consumption has fueled China's economic growth over the past three decades. Since coal use is also a significant source of CO 2 emissions and air pollution, China has come under increasing international and domestic pressures to reach peak emissions 3. Consequently, moving the economy away from coal dependency-which remains China's primary energy source-has become an important development strategy. The timing of China's peak coal consumption has been disputed, with a majority of recent projections placing it between 2020 and 2040 4. Yet China's coal use dropped to 4.12 billion tons, a decrease of 2.9%, in 2014, with another 3.6% decrease in 2015, all while GDP continued to grow by 7.3% and 6.9% respectively. As Liu et al. (2015) and Korsbakken et al. (2016) discuss, there are ambiguities in the accuracy of China's coal use data, which have implications in China's energy and emissions policy. However, the government has retrospectively revised statistics on the basis of more accurate accounting (which are used here).

Rising inequalities and accelerating global environmental change pose two of the most pressing challenges of the twenty-first century. To explore how these phenomena are linked, we apply a social-ecological systems perspective and review the literature to identify six different types of interactions (or “pathways”) between inequality and the biosphere. We find that most of the research so far has only considered one-directional effects of inequality on the biosphere, or vice versa. However, given the potential for complex dynamics between socioeconomic and environmental factors within social-ecological systems, we highlight examples from the literature that illustrate the importance of cross-scale interactions and feedback loops between inequality and the biosphere. This review draws on diverse disciplines to advance a systemic understanding of the linkages between inequality and the biosphere, specifically recognizing cross-scale feedbacks and the multidimensional nature of inequality.

Summary Childhood obesity increases the risk of adulthood obesity and is associated with other adverse health outcomes later in life. It may be influenced by environmental characteristics of neighborhoods where children live, particularly dietary supply–related environmental factors. This study aimed to systematically review the evidence on the association between access to convenience stores and childhood obesity. We searched and filtered relevant literature in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library published before 1 January 2019. Data on the basic characteristics of studies, measures of access to convenience stores, and associations of convenience stores with weight‐related behaviors and outcomes were extracted from 41 included studies. In general, the density of and proximity to convenience stores in children's residential and school neighborhoods were positively associated with unhealthy eating behaviors. However, their associations with children's weight status varied significantly by regions. The association between convenience store access and children's weight status was found to be negative in Canada, rather mixed in the United States and the United Kingdom, and not significant in East Asia. We suggest future research to clearly define the convenience store, better measure the access to convenience store, and also measure children's journey and food purchasing and consumption behaviors, to explain pathways from convenience store access to childhood obesity for designing effective interventions and policies.