Environmental Questions Research Articles

Från motsatsförhållande till symbios? Miljöpolitik och välfärd i ekonomiska upp- och nedgångar

[From clash of interests to symbiosis? Environmental policy and welfare in times of economic boom and recession] Global challenges such as climate change, the free flow of international capital, and growing political transnational cooperation, together with two major financial crises, have put pressure on the national welfare state during recent decades. During the same period, the concepts of sustainable development and ecological modernization have contributed with an understanding of economic growth and environmental awareness as complementary. In that context, Karin Edberg’s article discusses whether environmental policy can be said to be part of the modern Swedish welfare state. Edberg makes use of the annual inaugural speeches given by the prime minister in connection with the opening of the Swedish parliament. This implies that the article’s results rather than reflecting political practice points at issues of political interest and their articulation. Edberg shows how environmental questions have fluctuated between being a de-ideologized and normalized part of the political landscape, and a political watershed. Today, the idea of sustainable development is the glue that connects environmental policies with the welfare state – at least on a rhetorical level – and which makes the environment a consensus issue. Publication history: Published original. (Published 7 October 2016) Citation: Edberg, Karin (2016) “Fran motsatsforhallande till symbios? Miljopolitik och valfard i ekonomiska upp- och nedgangar”, in Arkiv. Tidskrift for samhallsanalys , issue 6, pp. 7–37. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.6.1

New Paradigms for a Sustainable Well-Being

Abstract The achievement of “food security” involves the companies and their productive capacity. As well, the role played by the financial and commodities markets and their operators - commercial, financial and credit intermediaries- is important for the achievement of a new sustainability. Therefore, the “agricultural crisis” is based, principally on agricultural and environmental questions, but also on economic and markets issues. This paper represents an attempt to extend the scientific research on new paradigms of sustainable well-being variables, at least in part neglected or still considered prejudicially harmful, compared to environmental issues. Moreover, the economic dimension of sustainable well-being is investigated especially, referring to the financial market and its rules, as well as the agricultural products and the modalities to define their price.

Wasted cities in urbanizing China

Urbanization is a characteristic of the 21st century, especially in countries with developing economies and a large amount of rural-to-urban migration. In China, the emergence of “wasted cities and towns” has paralleled urban expansion; large newly built areas that remain unpopulated and have created significant economic and social costs. We conducted a systematic investigation into the prevalence and geographical distribution of these “wasted cities and towns” through an analysis of spatially-detailed data from 1992 to 2014, and by estimating the environmental impacts of these “wasted” cities using available data in mainland China. Between 2008 and 2012, at least 28 ghost cities/towns were documented within 16 provinces, with severe effects on land use and the ecosystem, creating a waste of resources and energy. These cities contributed to poor air quality and climate change, and created unneeded construction and demolition waste. To prevent a further increase in wasted cities, and to turn existing ones into sustainable cities, China has to dramatically change its urbanization and housing policies in tandem with strengthening environmental policies, while taking long-term prevention and short-term execution strategies. Knowing how to manage the phenomenon of “wasted cities” in China is not just an environmental question, but also has strong effects on urbanization and sustainability. Developing reasonable management plans may establish an example for developing countries, and emerging economies in particular. The sustainability of urbanization might be affected if the problems identified here are not resolved. China’s experiences with the environmental challenges of urbanization may provide valuable lessons for other emerging economies if the measures recommended here are implemented successfully.

Analyzing Nanosilver in Consumer Products

Analyzing Nanosilver in Consumer Products

Environmental Consciousness in Daily Activities Measured by Negative Prompts

The gap between people’s attitude and action as regards environmental issues has been pointed out even while surveys registered an increase in people’s environmental awareness. Among the possible reasons is that people tend to automatically answer “yes”, as most surveys on environmental consciousness use positively-phrased questions or prompts. To remove the “yes-bias” in previous surveys, this present study conducted in Japan a large-scale questionnaire survey on environmental consciousness using negative prompts and free-answered prompts on which behaviors people feel good/bad/uncertain for the environment. This study also investigated peoples’ psychological factors and concrete pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) in daily life. The results of the questionnaire with negative prompts showed that the rate of people’s consciousness to the environment was lower compared with other surveys. Through factor analysis, five psychological factors were extracted as the explanatory factors of environmental attitude. Demographic effects on the consciousness and PEBs were also observed. Comparison of free-answers on concrete daily behaviors among five different environmentally conscious groups showed there were certain phases in the perception of PEBs based on consciousness level. Similar common behaviors were highly ranked as both PEB and doubtful behaviors, indicating that people were worried about actions that involve a trade-off relationship from diversified standpoints.

Analysis of Sustainable Development in Local Spaces: The Application of the Theory of Fuzzy Sets

La medición del desarrollo sostenible presenta considerables dificultades que han limitado la capacidad de conocer y comprender la situación de los sistemas locales en cuestiones ambientales, por lo que este trabajo tiene la intención de hacer contribuciones para medir el desarrollo sostenible a nivel local. Para realizar esta medición, se presenta la construcción de un Índice de Desarrollo Sostenible Local (IDSL), el cual se construyó utilizando la teoría de la lógica difusa. Este índice permite analizar y comparar el desarrollo sostenible en tres dimensiones específicas del sistema ambiental a nivel local: social, ambiental y económica. Como evidencia empírica, se presentan los resultados de 11 municipios del Estado de Jalisco, México. Estos municipios integran las tres mayores zonas metropolitanas de la región.

EDUCAÇÃO AMBIENTAL PARA SENSIBILIZAR A COPARTICIPAÇÃO COM A NATUREZA: A AGROECOLOGIA NA ESCOLA

This article is about a research applied on a qualitative approach and inserted on the “Mais Educação” Program established by Interministerial Ordinance nº 17/2007 regulated by the Decree 7.083/2010. The research was executed from March to November 2014, with 23 children of Elementary School from Evaldo Koehler Municipal School, located on the countryside of River Cubatão do Norte, Pirabeiraba District – Joinville (SC). The study had the goal to sensitize the co-participation with the nature, aiming at their formation as agents in the care of the environment. The activities developed were based on playful educational workshops and practical workshops that encouraged the reuse and correct waste destination and actions along land by implantation, at school, of a vermicomposter and the establishment of a green productive area, the school market garden. The conclusion was that the educational, social and environmental practices stimulated children to participate on the contact with nature along with environmental sustainable questions. The enthusiastic manifestations with the activities made the research to show positive results.

Mining Twitter to monitor invasive alien species — An analytical framework and sample information topologies

Social online media increasingly emerge as important informal information sources that can contribute to the detection of trends and early warnings in critical fields such as public health monitoring or emergency management. In the face of global environmental challenges the utilization of this information in ecological monitoring contexts has been called for, but examples remain sparse. This can be attributed to the significant technical challenges in processing this data and concerns about the quality, reliability and applicability of information mined from social media to the ecological domain.Here the strength and weaknesses of social media mining for ecological monitoring are assessed using the micro-blogging service Twitter and invasive alien species (IAS) monitoring as an example. The assessment is based on a manual analysis of 2842 Tweets sampled from Twitter data with potential direct or descriptive references to IAS impacting forest ecosystems, which was collected over a period of nearly three years. The results are presented as information topologies for Twitter messages of observational and non-observational character for three IAS with distinctive characteristics (Oak Processionary Moth, Emerald Ash Borer, Eastern Grey Squirrel).The results show that the social media channel Twitter is a rich source of primary and secondary observational biodiversity information. It also provides useful insights in the topical landscape of public communications on IAS as well as the public perception of IAS and IAS management. The analysis suggests broad application opportunities in IAS monitoring and management, and points at applications for related environmental questions. The results highlight that social media mining for ecological monitoring needs to be approached with the same best practices as ecological monitoring in general, requiring a good understanding of the monitored subjects and specific monitoring questions.The challenges in utilizing this information for operational systems are of technical rather than conceptual nature and include extending the degree of automation, especially with regard to image recognition and the automatic provisioning of location information.

Revitalisasi Spiritualitas Ekologi Perspektif Pendidikan Islam

Amid the growing coalescence between the religion and ecology movement, religion and science, spirituality and ecology, the voice of Muslim thinking that care for the earth and its people is rising. While the Islamic position on the environment is not well-represented in the eco-theology discourse, it advances an environmental imaginary which shows how faith can be harnessed as a movement for social change. This article will draw upon field research which synthesized the Islamic ecological spirituality (eco-spirituality) from sacred texts, traditions, and contemporary thought, and illustrated how this spirituality is enlivened in the educational landscape of Islam. Knowledge of the relationship between human beings and the natural world, of the function upon which the nature was created, and of the function right living, is essential in this educational project, and the global eco-Islamic movement toward the eco-friendly community to environment. Despite the manifestation of environmental education activities in educational establishment, which are generally patterned Islamic education today is not representative of the holistic, integrated, and comprehensive educational philosophy of Islam. As contemporary world today, such as the environmental question, act as an impetus to encourages, to develop even to build a pedagogy which endeavours to be true to the religious traditions, values, and ethics of Islam, while also displaying the transformation of Islamic faith. Of course, many of them based their life, and lifestyle decisions on the teachings of Islam, and are showing the relevance of traditional resources and greatest life challenges facing humanity today; namely “save our nature”.

Taken as a given: Evaluating the accuracy of remotely sensed crop data in the USA

Quantifying the extent of agricultural land is important for addressing a large range of ecological, environmental, and economic questions. In many cases, answers focused on land use change require fine scale spatial data on the arrangement of crop types. Here we take advantage of the simultaneous availability of fine resolution, geospatial cropland data—the Cropland Data Layer, and comprehensive tabulated data—the USDA Census of Agriculture, to better understand the accuracy of geospatial data and thus, how geospatial data may be used in scientific research. We compared area estimates for cropland and major US crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and small grains) at the county level for the contiguous US in 2012 and for a subset of states in 2007. We find that accuracy of the Cropland Data Layer is high in regions dominated by a few crop types. However, elsewhere in the US accuracy is highly variable with common large areal overestimates and underestimates (+/−50% or more). Before employing the CDL and other geospatial data for applications such as measuring fine scale changes in land use, users should be wary of the potentially high misclassification error.

Microbial Speciation.

What are species? How do they arise? These questions are not easy to answer and have been particularly controversial in microbiology. Yet, for those microbiologists studying environmental questions or dealing with clinical issues, the ability to name and recognize species, widely considered the fundamental units of ecology, can be practically useful. On a more fundamental level, the speciation problem, the focus here, is more mechanistic and conceptual. What is the origin of microbial species, and what evolutionary and ecological mechanisms keep them separate once they begin to diverge? To what extent are these mechanisms universal across diverse types of microbes, and more broadly across the entire the tree of life? Here, we propose that microbial speciation must be viewed in light of gene flow, which defines units of genetic similarity, and of natural selection, which defines units of phenotype and ecological function. We discuss to what extent ecological and genetic units overlap to form cohesive populations in the wild, based on recent evolutionary modeling and population genomics studies. These studies suggest a continuous "speciation spectrum," which microbial populations traverse in different ways depending on their balance of gene flow and natural selection.

Numerical simulations of vertical growth of hydraulic fractures and brine migration in geological formations above the Marcellus shale

One of the critical environmental questions about hydraulic fracturing in shales is the potential for contamination of ground and surface water. There are two specific concerns arising from hydraulic treatments: 1) whether hydraulic fractures extend upward through overlying strata to reach overlying aquifers containing drinking water, and 2) whether injected fluids push native fluids upward into these overlying aquifers. In this work, the extent of likely fracture growth through overlying layers during hydraulic treatment of the Marcellus shale was estimated using a hydraulic fracture model. A wide range of material and fluid flow properties in a multi-layered geologic model was considered. The model was based on conditions and characteristics applicable to the Marcellus shale in that part of the Appalachian basin within southwestern Pennsylvania. Predictions of vertical termination frequencies for hydraulic fractures were used in a multi-layer model of the strata and natural fractures for studying brine migration through the natural and induced fracture network. NFFLOW, the software for explicitly modeling flow within networks of fractures, was utilized to compute transient flow rates according to the schedule of injected fluid during hydraulic fracturing. To aid our analysis, the modeled sequence of geologic strata was capped with a fictitious unfractured, but moderately-permeable layer, which serves as a monitoring zone. The analysis assumes one well lateral was placed in the middle of the Marcellus shale with hydraulic fractures penetrating layers in the model. The newly-developed geomechanical module within NFFLOW was used to represent stress-sensitivity of the fractures. This allows the opening and closing of fracture apertures with changes in fluid pressures within fracture segments. Pressure increases in the formations overlying the Tully limestone, indicating fluid flow, was observed due to the hydraulic stimulation; and the impact of these increased pressures on brine migration towards the surface was considered.

El páramo andino: características territoriales y estado ambiental. Aportes interdisciplinarios para su conocimiento

The most important characteristics of the Andean paramo are presented, an ecosystem of social and territorial interest, little known among Spaniard geographers. The synthesis developed constitutes a state of the art, updated and contrasted of the main appearances that define and characterise this space. The adopted approach has a systemic character and focuses in environmental questions, for being those ones who better embraces the paramo’s current complexity. After summarizing the geographical setting of the Andean paramo, we review the subjects that better describe its social profit, which includes hydrological uses, land cover and land use activities carried by locals. The main purpose of this article is to let know to the Iberian geographers a subject of great actuality among Latin American geographers.

Names matter

Local ecological knowledge (LEK) is increasingly used to provide insights into ecosystem dynamics and to promote stakeholder inclusion. However, research on how to incorporate LEK into ecosystem management rarely discusses taxonomy and nomenclature despite the fact that processes of naming are deeply implicated in what types of knowledge are validated and used. Too often, local names are vetted against and then subsumed under ‘true’ scientific names, producing an oversimplified understanding of local names and perpetuating stereotypes about communities that use them. Ongoing revisions in mycological taxonomy and widespread interest in wild edible fungi make mushrooms an excellent case study for addressing nomenclature as an important part of multi-stakeholder research. We use morel mushrooms collected from the Mid-Atlantic United States to demonstrate a methodological approach to nomenclature – performative method – that focuses both on maintaining culturally meaningful aspects of local names and on recognizing culture and meaning behind scientific names. While recognizing the utility of the Linnaean nomenclatural system, we argue that acknowledging the contextual meanings of names avoids the unequal power relations inherent in integrating local knowledge into scientific discourse, and instead reframes knowledge production around shared interests in environmental questions and challenges.

What is the biggest question in CSR research?

Purpose – Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an issue-oriented substantive domain. Nevertheless, there are countless socio-economic, medico-techno-scientific, environmental and ethical philosophical questions that are far from being settled. In pursuit of a more desirable and sustainable future, this work problematizes current corporate responsibility (CR) research, education and practice. Design/methodology/approach – This contribution provides a critical perspective on the future of CR research and practice and offers a way forward based on theoretical prescience. Findings – The paper delineates a taxonomy of typical crises, categorized as burning, existential, overlooked and neglected crises. This taxonomy can be used as a tool for all forms of scenario analysis, empirical work and policymaking. This allows various futures issues to be given targeted interventions, assigned a focal theory, or allocated differentiated resources and appropriate time and space depending on their technical nature and the institutional context within which the issues unfold. Social implications – This paper argues that CR research risks losing steam despite its near ubiquitous nature and the major contributions hitherto made. Nevertheless, when problems are strategically thought out in the light of the taxonomy above, they provide promising avenues for insightful research and value-creating practice to meet the expectations of both business and society. Originality/value – A profound chasm exists between CR practice and rhetoric. This void is particularly stark when we consider the interface between science and technology and developing economies. This paper explores desirable futures for CR while analyzing what is possible and probable.

Community–environment relationships of riverine invertebrate communities in central Chinese streams

Chinese rivers are both highly biodiverse and highly under pressure, hence an urgent need exists to understand ecological drivers and disentangle different scales of stressors to support water management. Our aims were to (1) determine the most influential variables for benthic invertebrate occurrence, (2) compare results related to communities as opposed to metrics and (3) examine the role of spatial scales with relevance to management. Benthic invertebrate sampling was performed at 37 sites in selected tributaries of the middle reaches of the Yangtze, covering an environmental gradient with a focus on organic pollution (stratified sampling design). Ten metrics commonly used in biomonitoring were derived and analysed in parallel to assemblage data. Environmental variables covered 74 parameters from three different spatial scales, namely local, reach and catchment scale. We ran a CCA with each of the three subsets to find out the significant determining/explanatory variables, followed by pCCA and pRDA (for metric data) with these variables with forward selection to determine single variables important for each subset; we further used variation portioning for benthic invertebrate data. A high percentage of overall variability (70 %) of the assemblage structure was explained, with catchment- and local-scale variables being almost equally important. Small-scale variables tended to be more important than large-scale variables for the metric-based approach but not for the assemblage approach. Our results emphasise the need for spatially explicit regional studies in freshwater systems and suggest testing multi-metric assessment approaches to tackle water management and environmental health questions in China.

Nixon's Coup: Establishing the NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society, 1969–70

In early 1969 the new US President, Richard Nixon, suggested the expansion of allied political consultation, as well as the setting up of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) committee which would deal with environmental problems. The Americans stressed that their proposal did not involve merely the technical aspects of environmental protection, but also the need for modern governance to evolve in order to safeguard the ‘quality of life’, a prime aspect affecting the legitimisation of the political and social systems. The US proposal was not received enthusiastically by the allies, who had little desire for radical changes, and did not regard this as a proper subject for the alliance; some even feared that a NATO role in environmental questions might mask a US disengagement from European security, especially during an era of détente. However, after making sure that the new committee would be fully under the control of the Council (in accordance with NATO's inter-governmental character), the allies finally agreed to its creation. The NATO discussions on the Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society (CCMS) point to the emergence of a new, more complex international agenda, and raise interesting questions regarding transatlantic relations during an era of wider transitions.

Gaetano Vinaccia’s (1881–1971) Theoretical Work on the Relationship between Microclimate and Urban Design

Because of his classification as a minor architect, Gaetano Vinaccia’s (1881–1971) role in the history of architecture has not been studied in depth. Despite the fact that his impact on the debate about rational architecture was limited, the depth and scientific accuracy of his theoretical contribution to the field of microclimatology in relation to urban design issues deserve to be highlighted, especially today when environmental and bioclimatic questions arise strongly in architecture and planning. Thus, this work aims to reconsider this figure by describing the—unfavorable—context in which his work evolved, by bringing to light his most brilliant statements, by reading his scientific productions, and by starting to consider the validity of some of Vinaccia’s intuitions and their actual correspondence with contemporary research. The question of whether Vinaccia can be considered as an innovator (or not) largely derives from the point of view of architectural criticism and the fact that he did not have a well-defined discipline in which to be classified. Despite the fact that his The City of Tomorrow (1943–1952), which is the first complete treatise on the subject, reveals that he was an absolute pioneer, he has had no chance to influence architecture and urbanism until today.

What Is Speciation?

What is a species? What is speciation? These questions are not easy to answer. Yet, for those microbiologists studying environmental questions or dealing with clinical issues, the ability to name and recognize species, widely considered the fundamental units of ecology, can be useful as well as being fundamentally valuable. The speciation problem, the focus here, is more mechanistic and conceptual. What is the origin of species, and what evolutionary and ecological forces keep them separate once they begin to diverge?

Special Issue on Spatio-Temporal Theories and Models for Environmental, Urban and Social Sciences: Where Do We Stand?

This article introduces three papers in a special issue that considers new directions relating to spatio-temporal theories for environmental, urban, and social questions. This work gives an overview of some recent perspectives on temporal GIS research including for example, cognition of geospatial dynamics, challenges of big data for urban and environmental sciences, representing mobility, and new ideas about time and space-time in geographic information science among others. The three papers consider topics including space-time pattern analysis and information retrieval, human mobility patterns and urban dynamics from mobile phone data, and spatio-temporal change as it is relates to administrative boundaries.