Interest In Environmental Issues Research Articles

The Future of Meat, episode 367, February 13, 2019, Freakonomics Podcast.

<i>The Future of Meat</i>, episode 367, February 13, 2019, Freakonomics Podcast.

Timo Veijola’s Finnish Publications and Their Influence

ABSTRACT Timo Veijola (1947-2005) is internationally well known because of his numerous studies on Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomistic History. Less known, however, are his contributions to biblical studies that he wrote in his native language Finnish. This article aims to shed light on this part of Veijola’s publications. A characteristic feature in Veijola’s Finnish publications is his endeavor to address his essays to a wider audience, not just for professional biblical scholars. This leads to topics and emphases that sometimes differ from his international studies. For instance, Veijola often examines the reception history of biblical passages in his Finnish essays. Furthermore, he pays attention to the hermeneutics and underlines repeatedly the significance of the Old Testament in the modern world. Veijola was famous for his interest in environmental issues. Due to his own personal experience Veijola attempts to explain to his Finnish readers what depression means as a biblical and present-day phenomenon.

Environmental Engagement, Religion and Spirituality in the Context of Secularization

Over the past half century, a literature has developed across a range of disciplines exploring the relationship between religion and environmental engagement, including pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours.Empirical results are diverse and the relationship seems to vary in size and direction, depending on definitions and the method of investigation adopted. An increasingly important phenomenon which has received far less attention is that of spirituality, within/out the context of a religion. This paper contributes to the literature by examining the question in a predominantly Roman Catholic European Union country where church attendance is in decline. It employs a nationally representative dataset (n=1,029) which includes diverse measures of religiosity and spirituality, as well as measures of interest in environmental issues, in wildlife and natural history, and engagement in countryside activities and gardening, together with relevant socio-economic control variables. Our findings confirm that the usual socio-economic determinants are associated with this type of environmental engagement. We find that church attendance adds no further explanatory power to environmental engagement. On the other hand, participation in socio-cultural religious activities and self-assessed spirituality are positively and significantly associated of various dimensions of environmental engagement.

Persuasion Game: Cross Cultural Comparison

Background. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the “persuasion game” in changing environmental attitudes and behaviors in different cultural contexts. Personal communication has been identified as a key facilitator of environmental behaviors, but environmental communication in our daily lives is infrequent. Intervention. This study tested the effects of the persuasion game in Germany, Hong Kong, and Japan. The game divides participants into two groups: persuaders and persuadees. The persuaders were given 10 minutes to persuade as many persuadees as they could to adopt energy-saving behaviors. Further, after 10 minutes, these participants were asked to switch their roles. Method. The study employed a quasi-experimental pretest/posttest design to examine changes in attitudes and behavioral intentions of the participants toward energy-saving before and after their participation in the persuasion game. Participants were university students in Germany (N = 116), Hong Kong (N = 65), and Japan (N = 92). Results. In all three countries, playing the game was associated with increased intention to adopt energy-saving behaviors, perceived seriousness of environmental problems, descriptive norm, and subjective norm. The increase in subjective norm was especially high in Japan, where the increase in intention to adopt energy-saving behavior was particularly pronounced among those who had less environmental communication. Discussion. The results indicate that this game can not only facilitate communication on environmental issues in different cultural contexts but also change how people perceive others’ interest in environmental issues. Conclusion. This study showed that persuasion game can be played in countries other than Japan as well. Moreover, it provides an opportunity to communicate with others on environmental issues, which may contribute to promoting future environmental behaviors.

Swedish House Owners’ Intentions Towards Renovations: Is there a Market for One-Stop-Shop?

In this paper, we examine factors affecting owners’ intention for renovation of their detached houses. Furthermore, we analyze their interest in choosing a one-stop-shop (OSS) service for the renovation, even though such a concept is not yet established in Sweden, but emerging in other parts of Europe. Our study is based on responses to an online questionnaire survey of 971 house owners residing in Kronoberg Region in Sweden. About 76% of the respondents intend to renovate in the near future, with approximately 71% of them preferring to renovate individual components of their dwelling and 5% to renovate their whole house in steps. House owners of younger age, higher income, higher education, and those with an interest for environmental issues, were the ones most interested in physical renovations, which improves energy efficiency of the building. For those house owners, one-stop-shop can facilitate the decision-making process, and help them to choose those measures that will improve their quality of life. Approximately 20% of the respondents had a positive view towards an one-stop-shop, which is an indicator that market for such a service exists. Parameters such as quality of work, cost and energy savings and specification of measures to be adopted are the key for the promotion of one-stop-shop. Additionally, house owners want to have a certain level of involvement in the selection of actors performing the renovation. Moreover, financial incentives, e.g., loans, do not play a significant role for the selection of one-stop-shop, but act as complementary motive for house owners.

A bibliometric analysis of global research on the arctic (with special interest in environmental issues)

The paper deals with the quantitative assessment of scientific publications regarding the Arctic indexed in SciVerse Scopus in the ten-year period (2007–2016 years). The research shows that the number of publications on the Arctic theme was consistently increasing over the previous years. The most frequently published topic concerns indigenous peoples, the most dynamic in its growth topic is renewable energy and the most active countries are The United States of America (USA), Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany. Basing on the results of this bibliometric study the original typology of the topics concerning the Arctic is created. The conducted bibliometric review shows the current situation of scientific research on this region and gives the data to predict its evolution in the next several years.

Biogas Energy Production Potential of Grass under Anaerobic Digestion: Review

Because of the recent increase demand of energy, interest in environmental issues and depletion of fossil fuel, the demand of renewable energy sources as substitute of fossil fuel is rapidly increasing. Production of biogas under anaerobic digestion as methane can be used to replace nonrenewable energy resources in both heat and power generation and as a vehicle. For biogas production various organic feedstocks are used. Most often used are animal manure, food waste, agricultural wastes and crop residues, aquatic waste, forest residues, municipal solid wastes and grass. The review is based on secondary data obtained through various sources such as textbooks, journals, documents and conference papers with the objective of providing an overview of biogas energy production from biomass, thus providing information toward anaerobic digestion contributing to methane rich biogas production. The review shows that biogas production from biomass as a good fuel alternative because the source biomass can be grown renewably and decrease environmental stress.

The time and timing components of conservation culturomics cycles and scenarios of public interest in the Google era

Analysis of Google Trends data on Internet crowd-searches regarding biodiversity conservation and global change is steadily developing as a meta-information data stream on public interest in environmental issues and challenges. Literature develops on the validity and multiple determinants of Google Trends, involving a large palette of constraints regarding the adoption of simplistic linear regressions of search volumes versus time. In this paper, we focus on the analysis of monthly (or yearly) deviations from long-term averages of Google Trends as descriptors of public interest variability. We propose (1) a SWOT-like Methodological-Social/Ecological-Technical-Conceptual framework of Google Trends based analysis of culturomics; (2) a series of specific data on deviations or error distribution regarding flag-terms of conservation discourse; and, (3) two potential mechanisms driving fluctuations of Google Trends.

Can we use a local government institute for the environment in Japan to foster environmental science literacy for sustainability?

Environmental education (EE) using a scientific approach is needed to foster environmental science literacy, which is indispensable for a deep understanding of environmental problems imposed on sustainable communities. We used a national questionnaire survey to research the availability of Local Government Institutes for the Environment (LGIEs) in Japan to revitalize EE. Conventional EE in Japan features themes on nature experiences, waste, recycling and others, which probably initiates interest in environmental issues and promotes simple pro-environmental behaviors. In contrast, EE by LGIEs focuses on themes on water, the atmospheric environment, and radiation and risk communication. This EE is characterized by numerous opportunities to think based on environmental data using LGIEs’ scientific skills for monitoring of pollutants in various environments. LGIEs’ EE fosters literacy that bridges the gap between interest and behaviors and should be incorporated into conventional EE in Japan through political support for developing sustainable communities.

Degradation of Polyethylene and Biocomponent-Derived Polymer Materials: An Overview

The progressing degradation of the natural environment taking place over the last few decades and resulting from the systematically growing production of synthetic polymer materials led to the search for technological innovations aimed at producing environmentally friendly materials. Moreover, the increasing importance of sustainability promotes the development of bio-based and biodegradable polymers, sometimes misleadingly referred to as “bioplastics”. Inability to degrade synthetic polymer materials and the problem of their persistence in the environment even for hundreds of years have caused the production of polymer materials with the addition of components that may accelerate their degradation more and more important in recent years. Additionally, the growing interest in environmental issues makes the requirements for new materials that will not significantly burden the environment higher. In Poland 29.1% and 26.8% of post-consumer polymer materials, respectively, were recovered and recycled, which means that up to 44.1% of post-consumer polymer materials were sent to municipal landfills. In 2017, for the first time in Poland, more plastics were recovered (55.9%) than stored (44.1%). However, by 2020, the level of energy recovery and recycling of post-consumer polymer materials in Poland should cover a total of 84.5%. When looking at the average values for Europe (recycling 31.1%, recovery 41.6%, storage 27.3%), it should be noted that Poland has much to catch up in this area and decisive actions should be taken to actually solve this problem. For this reason, it is extremely important to know the mechanisms responsible for the degradation of polymer materials and understand the interaction between these materials and abiotic and biotic factors that cause structural changes in polymers. Recent studies show that knowledge of the conditions determining the decomposition of polyethylene polymer materials and their impact on the natural environment is still insufficient. The literature reports reveal many contradictory theories, especially those that relate to the degradation of polymer materials in the soil environment. This study constitutes a comprehensive review of researches on (bio)degradation of polymer materials over the last decades, various methods of polymer structure modification to increase the degree of their degradability, as well as methods of recycling post-consumer polymer materials. Because there is a need to assess the performance of polymer innovations in terms of their biodegradability, especially under realistic waste management and environmental conditions, to avoid the unwanted release of plastic degradation products to the environment.Graphical

Educating for Environmental Practices: An Assessment from Bachelor of Commerce (B. Com) Undergraduates in Sri Lankan State Universities

Scholarly attention on environmental literacy has been increased in recent years since the knowledge level and interest in environmental issues are decisive to engage in environmental protection functions. The study aims to investigate the environmental literacy level believing that understanding the level of environmental literacy will lead to influence attitudinal changes and actions of undergraduates towards environment. Total number of 650 Bachelor of Commerce undergraduates in state universities of Sri Lanka were selected as the sample of the study. A self-administered structured questionnaire was administered to collect data on the environmental literacy level, the interest and the activity engagement in environmental activities of the respondents. The regression-based path analysis was performed to examine the relationships among the constructs. Based on the descriptive analysis, there was low level of environmental literacy of the selected undergraduates in this study. The overall level of interest in environmental issues and the level of engagement in environmental activities were moderate. The regression-based path analysis indicated that environmental literacy as well as the environmental interest were significant predictors for environmental engagement. Further, interest in environmental issues mediated the relationship between the environmental literacy and the actual engagement in environmental activities. The study exclusively examined the relationship between the undergraduates' knowledge level of the environment and the interest in environmental issues and also examined the factors that influence undergraduates' participation in activities that promote sustainability of the environment, which has been neglected by prior studies. The results facilitate to recommend that the degree programmes should be integrated with environmental areas where such knowledge could lead to promote the interest and the action towards the environmental activities. Keywords Bachelor of Commerce undergraduates, Comparative study, Environmental literacy, Sustainability

A bibliometric and network analysis of Lean and Clean(er) production research (1990/2017)

In recent years, the renewed interest in environmental issues has gradually required manufacturers to simultaneously pursue a more rational use of resources and a reduction in wastes production. New strategies, technologies and organisational innovations must be therefore conceived to “create more value with less impact” (WBCSD, 2010). An interesting and promising perspective for achieving internal efficiency, market effectiveness and environmental eco-efficiency is that of integrating the environmental variable in the Lean Production (LP) paradigm. Scholars and practitioners have been working for some years in this direction of eco-innovation. The present article aims at obtaining a quali/quantitative overview of Lean and Clean(er) production (L&C) research through a bibliometric and network analysis, by using a scientific literature database; in particular, it investigates how Clean(er) Production research and publications are progressively embedded in the field of LP, what are the main topics in this sub-field and common research themes. A comprehensive picture was made by analysing data concerning publications, authors, affiliations, and the countries of origin. Evolutionary profiles, major topics investigated, leading authors and collaborations have been reported. The results also reveal promising spaces for the development of L&C production research, in order to achieve economic and environmental benefits.

Factors affecting environmental sustainability habits of university students: Intercomparison analysis in three countries (Spain, Brazil and UAE)

Abstract This paper presents an analysis on the environmental habits of university students in three countries: Spain, Brazil and United Arab Emirates (UAE). We tested three hypotheses: The first is that sustainability indicators will be higher for students of environmental related degrees than for those of other disciplines, as the former should have greater interest in environmental issues. The second hypothesis stated that sustainability habits of students from environmental majors will be higher for those in upper level courses than for those in lower level courses, as they would be better informed about ecological problems and the importance to act. The final hypothesis was that sustainability practices will be higher for students with higher environmental concern. Other potential drivers of sustainability habits such as gender and country were analyzed as well. The study was based on questionnaire results from a sample of 1011 students from three public universities, one in each country. The survey included students' self-ranking frequency for 25 sustainability habits, using a Likert scale (1–5). Three indicators were defined to measure differences in students' environmental behavior: 1) the sum of values for all 25 sampled sustainability habits, 2) a two-group sustainability classification of students, based on a multivariate cluster analysis, and 3) the self-perception of students’ consumerism, as defined by the proportion of their ordinary purchases that they considered as basic needs. Non-parametric tests were used to assess the statistical significance for the different tested hypotheses. Results showed that the field of study and the self-perceived environmental commitment were significantly associated with students' sustainability habits in two out of the three indicators, while the year of study for environmental students was not found significant in any of them. None of the three explicative factors, field of study, year of study, or environmental concern were significantly associated with students' self-perceived consumerism. Country differences were statistically insignificant, whereas gender differences demonstrated higher sustainability values for females in 2 out of the 3 indicators in Brazil and Spain, but it was not significant for Emirati students. The irrelevant influence of year of study for students of environment-related disciplines conveys an interesting debate on whether current environmental university education should not only impact knowledge but also students’ sustainable mentality and practical behavior.

RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF BIODEGRADATION TECHNIQUES OF POLYMER

Lack of degradability and the closing of landfill sites as well as growing water and land pollution problems have led to concern about plastics. With the too much use of plastics and increasing pressure being placed on capacity available for plastic waste disposal, the need for biodegradable plastics and biodegradation of plastic wastes has assumed increasing importance in the last few years. Awareness of the waste problem and its impact on the environment has awakened new interest in the area of degradable polymers. The interest in environmental issues is growing and there are increasing demands to develop material which do not burden the environment significantly. This project reviews the biodegradation of biodegradable and also the conventional synthetic plastics, types of biodegradations of biodegradable polymers also use of a variety of “Recent development of biodegradation techniques” for the analysis of degradation in vitro.

Teaching the basics of electricity using a flexible piezoelectric generator

Lecturer-researchers, because of the duality of their profession, can introduce students directly to their research. Stimulating student interest through practical research topics enables students to see the relevance of the teaching/learning process and thereby enhance their motivation. As a major societal issue, research on renewable energies is held in great esteem, particularly among young students with a strong interest in environmental issues. The work presented here relates to the realization of a practical class on the testing of a flexible piezoelectric generator studied as part of the ‘N-air-J’ regional research project. The particular characteristic of piezoelectric materials is that they produce electricity when compressed, which means that they can be used in energy recovery devices. The electrical model associated with this type of generator, consisting of an ideal current source in parallel with a linear capacitor and a load resistor, is sufficiently simple to understand following a course on electricity for first-year university students. High school students in their first year of a science and laboratory technology baccalaureate in France have already taken this practical class as part of a dissemination campaign on scientific culture.

Willingness to pay for Beach Ecosystem Services: The case study of three Colombian beaches

Throughout the scientific literature, beaches have been regarded as very valuable ecosystems for the tourism industry; however, these ecosystems provide multiple direct and indirect benefits beyond tourism. This paper accounts for the results from a Willingness to Pay (WTP) study using data from 425 respondents at three beaches in the Colombian Caribbean Region. Out of the respondents from the three beaches, over 70% expressed a positive WTP to maintain Beach Ecosystem Services (BES) beyond tourism purposes. At two beaches, the payment amount was 3.40 US$/month, while at the third beach the payment amount was 6.80 US$/month. Beach environmental quality seemed to be an important aspect regarding the payment amount. It is highlighted that WTP in beaches did not depend on economic variables such as income or employment, whereas variables related to perception had a determining impact. WTP for BES was defined by interest in environmental issues and concerns about ecosystem services loss. The results offered hereto could provide support to decision makers through quantitative information on social preferences regarding beach improvement projects policies, if several reflections are considered.

How Can We Motivate Consumers to Purchase Certified Forest Coffee? Evidence From a Laboratory Randomized Experiment Using Eye-trackers

By conducting a laboratory experiment, we investigate how consumers' purchasing behavior for certified forest coffee is affected by consumers' interest in environmental issues, the provision of information, and product labels. We contribute to the literature in the following three ways. First, we conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to control biases due to endogeneity. Second, we utilize eye-trackers to examine how different product labels result in different visual attention. The combination of an RCT and eye-tracking techniques is new in the literature on purchasing behavior for environmentally friendly products. Third, our experiment measures participants' purchasing behavior that incurs actual costs rather than examining their willingness-to-pay (WTP) based on hypothetical questions. We find that concerns regarding environmental issues do not promote purchases of certified forest coffee. Information about certification programs does not have any effect on purchasing certified forest coffee unless information is provided to prior purchasers of certified forest coffee. By contrast, illustrations of forests on certified forest coffee labels attract participants' visual attention and further stimulate actual purchases of certified forest coffee, suggesting that a 1-second increase in visual attention increases the likelihood of purchasing certified forest coffee by 22 percentage points.

Ecological and human exposure assessment to PBDEs in Adige River

The interest for environmental issues and the concern resulting from the potential exposure to contaminants were the starting point to develop methodologies in order to evaluate the consequences that those might have over both the environment and human health. Considering the feature of POPs, including PBDEs, such as bioaccumulation, biomagnification, long-range transport and adverse effects even long time after exposure, risk assessment of POPs requires specific approaches and tools. In this particular context, the MERLIN-Expo tool was used to assess the aquatic environmental exposure of Adige River to PBDEs and the accumulation of PBDEs in humans through the consumption of possible contaminated local aquatic food.The aquatic food web models provided as output of the deterministic simulation the time trend of concentrations for twenty years of BDE-47 and total PBDEs, expressed using the physico-chemical properties of BDE-47, in aquatic organisms of the food web of Adige River. For BDE-47, the highest accumulated concentrations were detected for two benthic species: Thymallus thymallus and Squalius cephalus whereas the lowest concentrations were obtained for the pelagic specie Salmo trutta marmoratus. The trend obtained for the total PBDEs, calculated using the physico-chemical properties of BDE-47, follows the one of BDE-47.For human exposure, different BDE-47 and total PBDEs concentration trends between children, adolescent, adults and elderly were observed, probably correlated with the human intake of fish products in the daily diet and the ability to metabolize these contaminants. In detail, for the adolescents, adults and elderly a continuous accumulation of the target contaminants during the simulation's years was observed, whereas for children a plateau at the end of the simulation period was perceived.

폐기물 소각시설 최적가용기법 연계배출수준 (BAT-AEL) 설정

As the public interest in environmental issues increased, the “Act On The Integrated Control Of Pollutant-Discharging Facility” was enacted. Through the integrated environmental pollution prevention act in which 19 industries with large environmental impacts are sequentially applied, pollutants can be managed in a mediumintegrated manner and integrated permission of the business unit is possible and BAT can be applied to enable a scientific and proactive environmental management system. In addition, if the facility with BAT works normally, the pollutant emission is offered with the range of lower limit to upper limit. This study analyzed the overview of Best Available Techniques-Associated Emission Levels (BAT-AEL), and its setting procedure and method, and then suggested the BAT-AEL of a waste incineration facility. In comparative analysis on Emission Limit Values (ELVs) of EU, this study tries to propose improvement matters and development directions if the relevant standard is revised.

INDIAN INITIATIVES FOR ENVIRONMENT CONSERVATION

Society, at large, has to realise the gravity of environmental degradation and participate fully in the mitigation of environmental problems. This article discusses the Indian initiatives and the important milestones in the path of environmental protection and pollution abatement. The commitment of the Indian Government to the cause of public awareness of environmental conservation is reflected in its outreach and educational programmes. It involves ministries, environmental monitoring agencies, NGOs, academic and research institutions.&#x0D; The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has played a leading role in the national priority programmes of environmental monitoring, assessment and pollution control. All the stakeholders have succeeded to some extent in creating public interest in environmental issues but much more needs to be done.&#x0D; National level institutions like NEERI, NIO and TERI are actively involved in research to find feasible solutions to our environmental problems and in the dissemination of relevant information through their publications. In our country, voluntary organisations and NGOs have been contributing immensely to environmental causes.&#x0D; Following the directive of the Supreme Court in 1991, environmental education is a compulsory component of school and college curricula. India has contributed significantly to the deliberations at COP (Conference of the Parties) fora especially the recently held COP-21 at Paris. Our suggestions for creating a pollution-free world have always been welcomed by the participating countries especially the developing countries.&#x0D; This article also presents the results of an environmental study carried out in Wilson College, Mumbai in which the effect of salinity on the rate of degradation of effluents released in marine waters, was quantitatively studied using reaction kinetics.