Pim Martens

• Prof. Dr.
• Professor at Maastricht University

Cities are recognized as significant contributors to carbon emissions due to their numerous productive enterprises and dense populations. Tackling climate change and achieving the transformation to low-carbon cities requires public participation. News media serve as the primary channel for the public to gain relevant information, and journalists’ a...

Climate change presents profound challenges to marine ecosystems and fisheries, necessitating effective management and adaptive strategies. Simultaneously, marine fisheries exacerbate climate change by emitting greenhouse gases through fuel combustion and electricity consumption. This article reviews 142 studies on the bidirectional interactions be...

Urban greening is a major goal in policies for sustainable cities, and spatial planners are nowadays strongly interested in the benefits of greenspace for the well-being of urban residents. We present a novel, model-based approach to support the development of effective greening strategies. The approach is quantitative and spatially explicit and ac...

Responding to climate change and avoiding irreversible climate tipping points requires radical and drastic action by 2030. This urgency raises serious questions for energy companies, one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs), in terms of how they frame, and reframe, their response to climate change. Despite the majority of ener...

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have set the agenda for 2030, calling for collective global efforts to deal with climate change while seeking a balance between economic development and environmental protection. Although many countries are exploring emission reduction paths, mainly from government and corporate perspectives, addressing clim...

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Spatial planners are nowadays strongly interested in the benefits of greenspace for the health of urban residents. However, concrete and context-specific guidance on effective greening strategies is still lacking. We present a novel, model-based approach to support the development of such strategies. The approach is quantitative and spatially-expli...

Urban green space (UGS) has important impacts on human health, but an integrated participatory approach to UGS design for improved residents’ health has been lacking to date. The aim of our study was to develop and evaluate such a novel approach to address this gap. The approach was developed following guiding principles from the literature and tes...

Central American countries have been described as highly exposed to the negative effects of climate change (CC). Policies dedicated to CC and climate policy integration-mainstreaming-into sectoral policies have been considered key strategies. Previous research has documented the progress made in this region regarding dedicated policies, but regardi...

Urban Green Space (UGS) has important impacts on human health, but an integrated participatory approach to UGS design for improved residents’ health was lacking to date. The aim of our study was to develop and evaluate such a novel approach to address this gap. The approach was developed following guiding principles from the literature, and tested...

Consistent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have induced irreversible impacts on ocean health, requiring urgent action to ensure the green development of the ocean. Marine fishing, a pillar ocean industry, is a major GHG emissions contributor to the ocean because of its heavy reliance on fuel combustion. However, the increasing GHG emissions from mar...

Transdisciplinary sustainability science integrates multiple perspectives, promotes internal reflexivity and situated learning, and engages with multiple stakeholders to solve real-world sustainability challenges. Therefore, transdisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning for sustainability science have traditionally focused on promoting core...

Introduction Ambient ozone pollution becomes critical in China. Conclusions on the short-term effects of ozone on cardiovascular mortality have been controversial and limited on cause-specific cardiovascular mortalities and their interactions with season and temperature. This research aimed to investigate the short-term effects of ozone and the mod...

Nowadays the prediction and change of waste-related behaviors represent a key topic for scholars and policy makers. The theoretical mainstays applied to waste separation behavior, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the Norm Activation Model and the Value Belief Norm, do not include the construct of goal in their formulation. Other goal-f...

The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) represents a major public health challenge and a serious threat to sustainable social development. A consideration of animal welfare is clearly justified, given the potential contribution of animals to the spread of the disease. The present study, therefore, sought to investigate the concern the Chines...

Low-carbon city transformation is an important action area of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) that aims to reach peak CO2 emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. Responding to global climate change is not only a national responsibility but also an individual responsibility and very much depends on societal participation...

Several studies show that religion hinders concerns for the natural environment preservation. Others, however, have found that the belief in God or the identification with a particular religion is not associated with measures for environmental concerns. This study investigates the influence of religious narrative framing and the relation between Al...

Food consumption is increasingly impacting environmental sustainability. Building on the latest data of China Statistical Yearbook 2015–2020, this study quantified the dietary ecological footprint per capita (EFP), including animal-based and plant-based EFP, across seven provinces (representing seven regions) and between urban and rural areas of Ch...

The relationship between people’s concern for the environment and their attitudes toward marine life remains ambiguous, especially in developing countries such as China. This paper reports results from an online survey (n = 500) conducted in 22 Chinese coastal cities regarding the relationship between public attitudes toward marine life and environ...

Higher education institutes (HEI) face considerable challenges in navigating how to respond to the escalating and intertwined socio-ecological sustainability crises. Many dedicated individuals working in the sector are already driving meaningful action through rigorous research, teaching, knowledge sharing, and public engagement, while there is a g...

Simple Summary Cats are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. Considering the close contact that exists between humans and cats, this is worrisome; virus transmission between species carries a particular risk of leading to the development of new virus variants. Therefore, the aim of this review was to provide a comprehensive overview of what is known concerni...

This study investigates public attitudes in Chinese society towards marine life and determines the roles of basic demographics and ethical ideology in shaping these attitudes. An online survey was conducted in 22 mainland coastal cities on the basis of a questionnaire regarding demographical information, the Ethical Position Questionnaire ( EPQ ),...

Background: Climate change presents an unprecedented and urgent threat to human health and survival. South Africa’s health response will require a strong and effective intersectoral organisational effort. Aim: Exploratory interview outcomes are used to advance practice and policy recommendations, as well as for broad input in the development of a...

This paper explores the role of learning in organizational responses to sustainability. Finding meaningful solutions to sustainability challenges requires companies and other actors to broaden their thinking, go beyond organizational boundaries and engage more with their stakeholders. However, broadening organizational perspective and collaborating...

It is well-documented that human demographic and personality factors are associated with people’s attitudes toward animals. A growing body of evidence shows the relationship between a person’s attitudes toward animals and their gender, age, household income, education, pet ownership, as well as geographic region. However, research into the correlat...

In recent years, the research on human behaviour in relation to waste management has increased at an exponential rate. At the same time, the expanding academic literature on this topic makes it more difficult to understand the main areas of interest, the leading institutions and authors, the possible interconnections among different disciplines, an...

The use of animals in medical research raises ethical challenges. In light of this moral issue, this study sought to investigate and compare people’s attitudes toward the use of ten animal species in medical research based on data collected from China (n = 504; men = 294, women = 210), Japan (n = 900; men = 446, women = 454), and the Netherlands (n...

Background Dengue is a prioritized public health concern in China. Because of the larger scale, more frequent and wider spatial distribution, the challenge for dengue prevention and control has increased in recent years. While land use and land cover (LULC) change was suggested to be associated with dengue, relevant research has been quite limited....

Background Though inconsistent, acute effects of ambient nitrogen oxides on cardiovascular mortality have been reported. Whereas, interactive roles of temperature on their relationships and joint effects of different indicators of nitrogen oxides were less studied. This study aimed to extrapolate the independent roles of ambient nitrogen oxides and...

There is ample research supporting White’s (1967) thesis, which postulates that religion and religious belief inhibit ecological concerns. This study thus seeks to explore the relationship between individuals’ acceptability for harming animals as one representation of ecological concern (measured using Animal Issue scale (AIS)) and their religious...

Simple Summary Conflicts with wolves arise because wolves kill farm animals, especially sheep, or approach humans. It is expected that young wolves learn from their parent pack (PP) what their prey is and if it is safe to be near humans. To confirm this, we researched whether the behavior of young migrating wolves (loners), after they leave the pac...

This paper reports findings from research which surveyed coastal residents’ attitudes toward offshore oil and gas drilling in China. An online survey was carried out in 22 coastal Chinese cities using a questionnaire aimed at collecting demographic information and measuring offshore drilling support, risk, and trust. The data reveal that coastal re...

This research article presents a diagnosis and synthesis of three case studies of universities that have transformed themselves as organisations towards sustainability with signature pathway approaches. These took place in 2016 at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Arizona State University, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. These univ...

Although there has been a steady increase in the number of studies on consumer behaviour in relation to sustainable development, there is limited focus on the product disposal phase. This systematic literature review intends to: (1) clarify how concepts related to pro-environmental consumer behaviour are understood and analysed in the academic lite...

It is well-documented that in developed countries, companion animal caretakers often show strong attachments to their animals. However, very little research has incorporated caretakers’ attachment to companion animals in developing countries such as China. This research analyzed the correlation between the attachment level of Chinese dog and cat ca...

Our current sustainability crisis reveals a deeper systemic behavioral pattern, discussed in this paper as the polarization effect that gave rise to our mechanistic worldviews. This effect is in part driven by our attempts to control our natural world to suit our economic needs via technological advancements that have decreased our reciprocity with...

As an indicator of sustainable development, the ecological footprint has been successful in providing a basis for discussing the environmental impacts of human consumption. Humans are at the origin of numerous pollutant activities on Earth and are the primary drivers of climate change. However, very little research has been conducted on the environ...

Simple Summary Young adults’ attitudes towards animals will be influenced by a number of factors, including: sex, age, nationality/ethnicity, residence area, animal-related activities and hobbies, food habits, culture/religion, education and pet ownership. A case study of Dutch and Belgian high school students shows that levels of concern for anima...

How ethical ideologies relate to public attitudes toward nonhuman animals is an increasingly prominent topic, yet it has been largely unstudied, particularly in Asian countries such as Japan. Using the Ethics Position Questionnaire ( EPQ ), Animal Attitude Scale ( AAS ), and Animal Issue Scale ( AIS ) in the present study, we examined how ethical i...

In Japan, there are more than 20 million companion dogs and cats that consume resources. Yet, little is known about their environmental impacts and the related energy policies aiming to reduce such impacts. In this study, we quantified Japanese companion dogs and cats’ environmental impacts regarding their food consumptions. More specifically, we a...

Food consumption has considerable impacts on the environment. Recently, increasing numbers of companion animal owners feed their animals with high nutritional food, which requires much land space and has great impacts on carbon emissions. Therefore, the environmental impacts of food consumption by companion animals can be significant, especially in...

Ethical ideologies, which include dimensions of idealism and relativism, are often involved in the process of decision-making regarding operational and economic research. However, the study of the role of ethical ideologies concerning public attitudes toward animals has been largely neglected. The present study analyzed how ethical ideologies and t...

Recently, studies in the United States and European countries have shown that the degree of attachment is associated with the attribution of emotions to companion animals. These studies imply that investigating the degree of attachment to companion animals is a good way for researchers to explore animal emotions and then improve animal welfare. Alt...

Animal emotions in Japan. (SAV)

The emotions of pets. (PDF)

In this chapter we will mainly focus on biodiversity challenges in relation to human health. We will do this from a science-society interface perspective. What are the important challenges regarding this topic when aiming for policy and society practice relevant reseaerch and action? First, we will briefly introduce the main biodiversity-human heal...

The relationship between public attitudes toward animals and human demographics has been well documented during the last few decades, but the influence of human ethical ideologies on public attitudes toward animals and animal welfare has been rarely investigated, especially in developing countries, such as China. The present study introduced two sc...

The practice of mapping ecosystem services (ES) in relation to health outcomes is only in its early developing phases. Air purification by vegetation and the resulting avoided respiratory disease burden is a health-related ES that is currently mapped for several areas in the world. Another example is the attenuation of ocean waves by marine ecosyst...

Universities will play a profound role in a century in which society will be judged by its capacity for self-transformation in response to pandemic crises of climate change and capitalism. Frameworks of analysis of sustainability in organisations could benefit from tangible systemic rubrics for transformation. This research delineates the core elem...

A promising approach for addressing sustainability problems is to recognize the unique conditions of a particular place, such as problem features and solution capabilities, and adopt and adapt solutions developed at other places around the world. Therefore, research and teaching in international networks becomes critical, as it allows for accelerat...

Animals have accompanied humans for thousands of years, with a strong bond forged between humans and other species. Our relationships with animals can take different forms. On one hand, animals can serve instrumental purposes: We currently use animals for clothing, for testing a range of human products, for gaining basic insights into human biology...

The role of zoos in society has historically changed many times. Recent developments suggest a shift or expansion of zoos towards becoming sustainability agents aiming at raising awareness amongst visitors of our relations with animals and nature and ultimately guiding them towards sustainable behaviour. The ‘sustainable zoo’ -- or the zoo as a sus...

In the past decade, interest in the impacts of ecosystem change on human health has strongly increased. The ecosystem–health relationship, however, is characterized by several complexity aspects, such as multiple and diverse health impacts – both positive and negative – and a strong interaction with socio-economic factors. As these aspects strongly...

There is a growing body of scientific evidence supporting the existence of emotions in nonhuman animals. Companion-animal owners show a strong connection and attachment to their animals and readily assign emotions to them. In this paper we present information on how the attachment level of companion-animal owners correlates with their attribution o...

Universities hold a crucial responsibility and role to contribute to sustainable development, also in their education task. The concept of competencies for sustainable development and the idea of using real-world sustainability issues in education are promising approaches to transform sustainability programmes at universities into student-centred l...

The debate about sustainability can be traced back into the eighteenth century. It was revived following the publication of the Brundtland Report “Our Common Future” (1987) and the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (1992). Since then, interest has been focused on developing new concepts between the seemingly...

Climate change is emerging as one of the major challenges facing scientific and policy communities. The inherent complexity will ultimately require a much more integrated response scientifically to better understand multiple causes and impacts as well as at the scientific–policy interface where new forms of engagement between scientists, policymake...

Achieving good health should be an integral part of the current discussions about sustainable development. It is increasingly recognized that health research (and policy) requires a systems approach and the past decades have witnessed an emerging recognition of the multidimensional and multilevel causation of population health. An ever growing numb...

This textbook provides a comprehensive compilation of conceptual perspectives, methodological approaches and empirical insights of inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability science. Written by an international team of authors from leading sustainability institutions, the textbook covers key perspectives and topics of the scientific discourse on s...

Although people will most likely adjust to warmer temperatures, it is still difficult to assess what this adaptation will look like. This scenario-based integrated health impacts assessment explores baseline (1981–2010) and future (2050) population attributable fractions (PAF) of mortality due to heat (PAFheat) and cold (PAFcold), by combining obse...

There is growing evidence of climate change affecting infectious disease risk in Western Europe. The call for effective adaptation to this challenge becomes increasingly stronger. This paper presents the results of a survey exploring Dutch expert perspectives on adaptation responses to climate change impacts on infectious disease risk in Western Eu...

Large parts of urban space around the world exist of small-scale plots such as domestic gardens. These small-scale urban spaces carry potential for enhancing biodiversity, sustainability and ecosystem services in and beyond cities. However, domestic gardening and residential garden designs are often guided by aesthetics and ease more than by the ai...

Vegetation is an important ecosystem on earth. It influences the earth system in many ways. Any influences on this fragile variable should be investigated, especially in a changing climate. Humans can have a positive or a negative influence on plants. This paper investigates the possible impact of tourism development and economic growth on vegetati...

Biodiversity and health mutually interact. Generally speaking, the greater the decline in biodiversity, the higher are the risks to human health – certainly over the long term (Corvalán et al., 2005). Guiding the health transition towards an era of sustainable health demands an integrated policy that embraces social, economic and ecological element...

Biodiversity and health mutually interact. Generally speaking, the greater the decline in biodiversity, the higher are the risks to human health – certainly over the long term (Corvalán et al., 2005). Guiding the health transition towards an era of sustainable health demands an integrated policy that embraces social, economic and ecological element...

This paper discusses the measurement of globalization with a view to advancing the construction of globalization indices. It critically analyzes the types of indices that can contribute to knowledge and policy on globalization. Three issues are particularly highlighted: (a) the focus of measurement (i.e. on activities or policies); (b) the dimensio...

Climate change is considered to be a significant influence for infectious disease risk in Western Europe. Climatic and non-climatic developments act together resulting in current and future infectious disease risk. This study uses a survey to explore Dutch expert perspectives on climate change induced infectious disease risk. The results show that...

Background Dengue fever (DF) has been emerging in Hanoi over the last decade. Both DF epidemiology and climate in Hanoi are strongly seasonal. This study aims at characterizing the seasonality of DF in Hanoi and its links to climatic variables as DF incidence increases from year to year. Methods Clinical suspected cases of DF from the 14 central d...

SUMMARY Dengue fever/dengue haemorrhagic fever (DF/DHF) appears to be emerging in Hanoi in recent years. A case-control study was performed to investigate risk factors for the development of DF/DHF in Hanoi. A total of 73 patients with DF/DHF and 73 control patients were included in the study. The risk factor analysis indicated that living in rente...

Cultural landscapes generate many ecological values. Much of the cultural landscape exists as private or semi-private domestic gardens. These domestic gardens are hidden treasures of information on small-scale urban landscape design, urban biodiversity and the relation between citizens and their direct living environments. In this paper, an indica...

Sustainable and responsible living requires far more than the consumption of eco-friendly and fair trade products. It is the joint outcome of the three pillars of the Dutch Triple G model of sustainable living: geld (money), groen (eco-friendliness), and gezondheid/welzijn (health and well-being). This approach integrates the interests of the envir...