With the frequent occurrence of extreme weather in various parts of the world, people have begun to reflect on the scientific rationality of the means of global climate change governance. How to effectively respond to the hazards caused by extreme weather remains a hot issue of concern to the international community. In this paper, taking the function of plant carbon sequestration and oxygen release, which can regulate human thermal comfort as an entry point, we use virtual reality (VR) to construct a digital scene and invite subjects to conduct behavioral experiments in order to assess human thermal comfort. The experimental results indicate that participants’ subjective evaluations of virtual and real environments are consistent with changes in heart rate variability (HRV), validating the reliability of using virtual environments to study thermal perception. The study also found a significant correlation between HRV and the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) index, which both measure human thermal comfort. This suggests that when the WBGT changes due to microclimate variations, HRV changes accordingly. The negative correlation between plant carbon sequestration oxygen release capacity and HRV further supports this view. It also indicates that human thermal comfort can provide feedback on microclimate change trends, and that accurate monitoring of the microclimate is more conducive to assessing the progress of climate warming. This study demonstrates the association between human comfort and microclimate change, discusses the validity of human thermal comfort metrics in climate monitoring, and provides new perspectives for solving the global climate crisis.

Growing environmental concerns and regulatory pressures are prompting firms to re-examine packaging design to advance sustainability. Focusing on eco-designed retail packaging in the new-style milk tea industry, this study investigates how specific attributes of eco-designed retail packaging influence consumers’ purchase intention. Data were collected from 425 university students in Wuhan. We measured eco-designed retail packaging (ECRP) with a six-dimension scale (functional, aesthetic, eco-materials, eco-information, eco-production, and innovation) and tested the mediating role of green perceived value (GPV) using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results show differentiated effects of ECRP dimensions on GPV and purchase intention. Functional design and clear eco-information increase both GPV and purchase intention, whereas using eco-materials while directly raising purchase intention reduces GPV. Aesthetics and innovation mainly operate through direct enhancement of purchase intention rather than via GPV. GPV mediates part of the effects of functional attributes, eco-materials, and eco-information on purchase intention. The findings imply that optimizing functionality, information clarity, and material choices in eco-designed retail packaging can simultaneously elevate GPV and purchase intention. As green packaging becomes an industry imperative, this study provides theoretical and practical guidance for sustainable packaging innovation and green industry development.