Abstract
Food, energy, and water (FEW) systems have been recognized as an issue of critical global importance. Understanding the mechanisms that govern the FEW nexus is essential to develop solutions and avoid humanitarian crises of displacement, famine, and disease. The U.S. and China are the world's leading economies. Although the two nations are shaped by fundamentally different political and economic systems, they share FEW trajectories in several complementary ways. These realities place the U.S. and China in unique positions to engage in problem definition, dialogue, actions, and transdisciplinary convergence of research to achieve productive solutions addressing FEW challenges. By comparing the nexus and functions of the FEW systems in the two nations, this perspective aims to facilitate collaborative innovations that reduce disciplinary silos, mitigate FEW challenges, and enhance environmental sustainability. The review of experiences and challenges facing the U.S. and China also offers valuable insights for other nations seeking to achieve sustainable development goals.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1446-1455 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Environmental Science and Technology |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2 2021 |
Funding
The Food-Energy-Water Systems Transdisciplinary Environmental Research Network (FEWSTERN) is a Research Coordination Network (RCN) established in 2017 with joint support from the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant No.: CBET 1739474) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 51711520319). Kline\u2019s research is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under the Bioenergy Technologies Office, award number EE0007088, to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). ORNL is managed by the UT-Battelle, LLC, for DOE under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. We thank Natalie Griffiths for her helpful review comments on an early version of this manuscript. Copyright Notice: This manuscript is coauthored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05\u201300OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The U.S. government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).