The study “The Ocean and Early-Childhood Mortality” co-authored by Alex Armand with Ivan Kim Taveras (Bocconi University) was featured in Expresso. The work alerts to the need to combat climate change and extractive fishing in order to avoid the premature loss of human life in developing countries. "For every 0.01 unit increase in ocean acidity, two additional neonatal deaths per thousand live births in coastal areas of developing countries happen," says the study. The two researchers cross-referenced data on 1.5 million geocoded births in coastal areas of 36 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America between 1972 and 2018, with scientific information on ocean acidification and overfishing, and found that "deteriorating seas affect pregnancy and cause neonatal deaths due to maternal malnutrition, which leads to nutrient deprivation before birth, affecting fetal development." The analysis made on the relationship between the ocean and early infant mortality “leads us to hope that with the knowledge of the effects registered so far, it will be possible to prevent the situation from worsening in the future, namely leading governments in developed countries to rethink in the long run how to extract resources from the seas and to define international agreements”, said Alex Armand