World Summit on Sustainable Development: An environmental highlight or an environmental education letdown?

The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) met from 26 August to 4 September 2002, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Its goal was to hold a 10-year review of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development and to reinvigorate global commitment to sustainable development. Main outcomes include the reaffirmation of sustainability as a basic worldwide need, the establishment of a World Solidarity Fund, the eradication of poverty and the agreement on particular attention to the needs of the African countries. However, there is also a great failure. It failed to address the issue of environmental education (EE). The need for implementation and support of the greatest tool, which can lead to action, i.e. the need for specific knowledge, was never stated. Issues of knowledge, access to information, critical thinking, evaluation, assessment, even dispute and doubt, i.e. components that make citizens actively participate in the environmental decision process, were not addressed. Delegates in Johannesburg managed to decide upon the need for reaction, without mentioning EE, the necessary prerequisite. 21,000 people discussed sustainability targets, but forgot to consider how we will reach them. One may think that EE was not discussed because it has already been successfully implemented; maybe the worldviews are that citizens do actively participate in environmental decision-making. Or perhaps we can still be so naïve, as to simply forget what we are talking about.     

Molecular modeling in environmental science∗

Quantum mechanic computer models are often used in chemistry to predict properties of molecules and to simulate reaction pathways. Such models calculate bond lengths, bond angles, dihedral angles, the energy of the molecular‐orbitals (MO's), the dipole moment, the ionisation potential, and the heat of formation. These results lead to detailed information on electronic structures like bond orders, electronic charges and levels of frontier orbitals (HOMO, LUMO).

It is possible to calculate properties of ground state molecules as well as ionic and radicalic structures, or reaction intermediates and other compounds with very short lifetimes.

From the exact knowledge of electronic structure, frontier orbitals, and reaction intermediates it is possible to predict stability of chemicals in the environment but also of fictive chemicals, which are not yet synthesized. Some authors have shown that there are correlations between electronic structure and toxicity.

The most interesting models for environmental chemistry are semiempirical models, such as MINDO, MNDO or MOPAC. Theses programs are able to handle molecules with 30 and more heavy atoms (all elements without hydrogen), and it is possible to install them on main frame computers (CPU‐time several minutes to hours) and on personal computers, with coprocessors (CPU‐time several hours to a few days).

Normally the molecule is read in from a Z‐matrix (a matrix of polar coordinates of atoms connected in the molecule) and with symmetry data. Furthermore, programs are available which create a Z‐matrix from the molecular structure plotted on the screen with a mouse.     

Is a voluntary approach an effective environmental policy instrument?: A case for environmental management systems

Using Japanese facility-level data from an OECD survey, we estimate the effects of implementation of ISO14001 and publication of environmental reports on the facilities’ environmental performance. While most previous studies focused on an index of emissions toxicity, this study examines three areas of impacts, none of which have been explored in the literature: natural resource use, solid waste generation, and wastewater effluent. The study is also unique in that the effectiveness of ISO14001 is considered in relation to environmental regulations. Our findings are summarized as follows. First, both ISO14001 and report publication help reduce all three impacts; the former appears more effective in all areas except wastewater. Second, environmental regulations do not weaken the effect of ISO14001. Third, assistance programs offered by local governments—a voluntary approach—promote facilities’ adoption of ISO14001. These findings suggest that governments can use command-and-control and voluntary approaches concurrently.     

MESIP∗: Modelling environmental scenarios in ponds

MESIP is a fugacity model which can predict the fate of organic hydrophobic chemicals in aquatic ecosystems. In this paper a short introduction to the mathematical model is presented together with a more detailed listing of the required input data. Comparison of the calculated and measured fate of a fluorescent whitening compound in an artificial outdoor pond is shown     

Good news for environmental self-regulation? Finding the right link

We investigate the stock market response to firm disclosure of positive environmental information and the link from that information to environmental outcomes. We classify environmental media releases by informational content and value relevance, and assess the abnormal stock returns of each type of event. While announcements of future environmental activities lead to the largest favorable stock market reactions, there is no guaranteed link from this type of information to environmental outcomes. Further analysis of the abnormal returns shows that the magnitude of the stock market reaction depends on firm financial characteristics across all event types rather than on firm environmental performance. Our results indicate that the ability for voluntary environmental information disclosure to induce environmental self-regulation is limited to the extent that firms are able to follow through with their announcements of planned environmental activities.     

Contributing institutional factors of rural environmental pollution in the process of modernization in China —In the perspective of the efficiency of environmental management system

With the development of rural pollution, its characteristic and institutional factor should be studied for pollution control through economics and sociology. Based on the data gathered from investigations by several government sectors, rural environmental pollution can be divided into two types by its sources: internal source type and external source type. The internal source type is the main component of rural pollution at present, which can be further divided into three types. Research shows that the contributing institutional factors of rural pollution issues and the effectiveness of environmental management system over rural pollution can be summarized as distinctiveness. In essence, the rural pollution issue results from the dualism of rural and urban areas’ inadaptability to rural modernization. In detail, the contributing factors can be summed up on three institutional levels. There are obvious loopholes in rural environmental management system which, in the meantime, is incapable and inadaptable to rural pollution control. There exist similar questions in the related public service system, which are intensified by inappropriate reform which brought about incompatible incentive in the recent years. However, in the eleventh five-year plan period, there are advantageous trends in the three institutional levels.     

Development of environmental management system in China’s financial sector

The establishment of the environmental management system in the financial sector can be effectively promoted through the introduction of the environmental protection concept and its implementation by the financial sector. The impact of a sustainable development system on the sector is analyzed in this article from three aspects: environmental risk assessment, financing support for environmental protection projects, and financial services to environmentally friendly corporations and individuals. Influential factors on the development of the environmental management system in China’s financial sector are discussed from the perspective of various entities such as financial institutions, financial regulation authorities, environmental protection departments, corporations, and the public. It is pointed out that China’s financial sector is now in the transitional phase from a defensive attitude to a preventive attitude. Strengthening governmental guidance, the supervision of regulators as well as public awareness of environmental protection should be used to enhance the initiative in the development of the environmental management system in the Chinese financial sector.     

Humic substances. Part III. sorptive interactions with environmental chemicals†

The formation of covalent binding to DNA of a carcinogen is now widely accepted to represent a classical mechanism of tumour induction in mammals. This mechanism does not operate with metals since no covalent binding of these agents to DNA does occur. Nevertheless, somatic mutations as typical consequences of DNA‐damage have been reported to be induced by metals in various model systems. Beside DNA‐alkylation such damages can be caused by changes in the conformation of DNA or in the fidelity of DNA‐repair. The activity of the repair enzymes DNA‐polymerases is indeed impaired by many metal ions at least in vitro. It is not yet established whether these mechanisms are also important in the intact mammalian organism. Much evidence has accumulated during the last years that a disturbance of the balance of cations and especially metal ions represents another possible mechanism of tumour induction. The tumours found with high doses of chelating agents such as nitrilo‐triacetic acid (NTA) have to be discussed in this context. Since most—if not—all of the speculative mechanisms of metal carcinogenesis resemble classical pharmacological reactions the existence of a threshold level is likely. So metal carcinogenesis will not be a problem of the environmental contamination at trace levels but a problem of occupational medicine.     

Aerogels and metal–organic frameworks for environmental remediation and energy production

Environmental pollution and climate change are requiring new methods to clean pollutants and produce sustainable energy. Aerogels and metal organic frameworks are emerging as advanced porous materials with higher functionality, high surface area, high porosity and flexible chemistry. Aerogels are dried gels prepared using the sol–gel procedure, whereas metal organic frameworks are networks of organic ligands and metal ions connected by coordination bonds. Applications of aerogels include the removal of heavy metals, CO₂ capture and reduction, photodegradation of pollutants, air cleanup and water splitting. This article reviews the synthesis and types of aerogels and metal organic frameworks, and the application to pollutant removal, energy production including hydrogen, methane reforming, CO₂ conversion and NOx removal.     

Goitre and environmental iodine deficiency in the UK — Derbyshire: A review

Endemic goitre was prevalent in the population of Derbyshire in the UK for many centuries until it declined from the 1930s. A contemporary medical survey showed that endemicity of goitre was particularly higher in the Carboniferous limestone areas of the Derbyshire-Peak District. Unlike classical goitrous areas of the world, where the distribution of goitre has been found to be related to the iodine content in the environment, there is no such relationship reported for the Derbyshire-Peak District area. The present study reviews the presence of endemic goitre in this area with reference to iodine in different environmental media using past and present data. In comparison with the world average values, the iodine contents in the soil and sediment in the Peak District are not deficient, but compared to England, Wales and Scotland averages, these levels are low. As no information on the mobility and bioavailability of iodine of this area is available, a cautious approach is necessary before any assumption is made on the aetiology of endemic goitre. The study also discusses some hypotheses relating to the possible cause of endemic goitre in the limestone areas. Further research needs are suggested depending on the land use and geochemistry of the Peak District to determine the underlying causes of the former endemic goitre in this area.     

Can decentralized planning really achieve first-best in the presence of environmental spillovers?

It is generally accepted that decentralized policy choice in the presence of interjurisdictional spillovers is inefficient. Strikingly, Ogawa and Wildasin (2009) find that in a model with heterogenous jurisdictions, interjurisdictional capital flows, and interjurisdictional environmental damage spillovers, decentralized planning outcomes are equivalent to that under a centralized planner. We first show the critical importance of two key assumptions (no retirement of capital, fixed environmental damages per unit of capital) in obtaining this result. Second, we consider a more general model allowing for capital retirement and abatement activities and show that the outcome of a decentralized market generally differs from the solution of a centralized planner?s social welfare-maximizing problem.     

Incorporation of environmental issues in South Africa’s municipal Integrated Development Plans

The transition to full democracy in South Africa in 1994 saw local government becoming the focal point for dealing with socio-economic development needs of communities. The Integrated Development Plan (IDP) has been used as the tool for guiding local development objectives, balanced against environmental demands within a sustainable development paradigm. Here we examine the extent to which this is being achieved through an analysis of IDPs from 35 different municipalities at three scales. We test the hypothesis that the metropolitan municipalities are better at mainstreaming environmental issues into their IDPs than local and district municipalities. Results indicate that mainstreaming environmental issues in IDPs is still low. The hypothesis that metropoles are better at mainstreaming environmental issues than district and local municipalities was not accepted since there were no significant differences between municipalities. There was low relative budget allocations and inclusion of vision and mission statements that mainstream environmental issues in all municipalities. For mainstreaming of environmental issues to be effective in IDPs, both proactive approaches and multi-faceted bottom-up and top-down approaches are suggested.     

The effect of selenium on fluoride — clay interactions: Possible environmental health implications

Previous epidemiological studies have shown that dental fluorosis is endemic in the lowland, dry zone of Sri Lanka, which is considered to be an area in which excessive quantities of fluorides are present in the drinking water supplies. It has been found that kaolinitic clay forms a suitable raw material in the defluoridation of water.It is shown that there is a noticeable effect of selenium and media pH on the reactions involved in the interaction of fluoride with clay. In this study, 1 mM fluoride solutions containing SeO ₃ ^2– (selenite) concentrations of 0 mM, 0.1 mM, 0.5 mM and 1 mM were used in the reactions with kaolinitic clay. The effect of pH was monitored in the range 4 to 8. It was observed that fluoride adsorption was maximum at a pH of 5.6 without either SeO ₃ ^2– or SeO ₄ ^2– , the adsorption capacity being 15.2 mol F^– g^–1 clay. However, when the SeO ₃ ^2– concentration was increased up to 0.5 mM at this optimum pH, the adsorption capacity reduced to 12.8 mol F^– g^–1 clay. Monitoring of the effect of SeO ₄ ^2– and media pH on fluoride adsorption showed that when the SeO ₄ ^2– concentration increases from zero to 0.1 mM, there is a reduction of fluoride adsorption capacity. However, when the SeO ₄ ^2– concentration is further increased from 0.1 mM to 1.0 mM, there was an increase in the fluoride adsorption capacity, indicating a more consistent effect of SeO ₃ ^2– on fluoride-kaolinitic clay interaction than SeO ₄ ^2– .Fluoride concentrations in drinking water supplies have a marked effect on dental health and the geochemistry of selenium appears to play an important role in the geochemical mobility of fluoride ions.     

Mass spectrometric isotope dilution analysis for accurate determination of elements in environmental samples†

The application of mass spectrometric isotope dilution analysis in environmental analytical chemistry is described. Different ionization methods used in mass spectrometry for isotope dilution analysis and the advantage of isotope dilution analysis owing to its accuracy are discussed. The principle of the isotope dilution technique is explained using thallium analysis as an example. Possible methods of sample decomposition for organic and inorganic matrices and of element separation are given. Using lead, cadmium and thallium analyses as examples the application of mass spectrometric isotope dilution analysis for determination of toxic metals in environmental samples is shown. The determination of chloride and bromide traces in snow is given as an example of non‐metal analysis. The possibility of determining pure elements by the isotope dilution technique using a long‐lived radioactive isotope as a spike is discussed.     

Do environmental right-to-know laws affect markets? Capitalization of information in the toxic release inventory

This paper investigates how information contained in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) program, one of the largest environmental right-to-know programs, affects prices in the housing market. I use a strengthening of the reporting requirements for the chemical lead in 2001 as exogenous variation to test for housing price changes near existing firms who must now report. Using a difference-in-differences specification, I find that listing an existing firm in the Toxic Release Inventory lowers housing prices up to 11% within approximately 1 mile. The results suggest that housing market participants do capitalize into prices at least some information conveyed by the TRI program.     

Testing of chemical substances for environmental effects—an important task for the chemical industry

Recently the heterogeneous reactions are increasingly recognised as significant in polluted areas. In this work the reactions of gases with solid alkali‐halide crystals at temperatures 200K and 300K were examined by using a recently proposed thermodynamic model (Varotsos et al., 1988) which provides the interconnection of entropy and enthalpy for various processes with well known macroscopic properties of the bulk solid.     

How sensitive are elasticities of long-run stochastic growth to how environmental variability is modelled?

A variable environment leaves a signature in a population's dynamics. Deriving statistical and mathematical models of how environmental variability affects population projections has - in the wake of reports of substantial climatic fluctuations - received much recent attention. If the model changes, then so too does the population projection. This is because a different model of environmental variability changes estimates of long-run stochastic growth, which is a function of demographic rates and their temporal sequence. Decomposing elasticities of long-run stochastic growth into constituent parts can assess the relative influence of different components. Here, we investigate the consequences of changing the environmental state definition, and therefore altering the shape of demographic rate distributions and their temporal sequence, by using age-structured matrix models to project vertebrate populations into the future under a range of environmental scenarios. The identity of the most influential demographic rate was consistent among all approaches that perturbed only the mean, but was not when only the variance was perturbed. Furthermore, the influence of each demographic rate fluctuated among projections by up to factors of six and two for changes to the variance and mean, respectively. These changes in influence depend in part upon how environmental variability - in particular, the color of environmental noise - is incorporated. In the light of predictions of increasing climatic variability in the future, these results suggest caution when drawing quantitative conclusions from stochastic population projections.     

An assessment of China-Japan-Korea Free Trade Agreement’s economic and environmental impacts on China

Recently, China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (Korea) are conducting a government-commissioned feasibility study on the Free Trade Agreement among the three countries (CJKFTA) to form a regional free trade zone in East Asia. Considering that freer trade can cause unexpected impact on domestic environment, there is a need to evaluate the environmental impact of such a trade policy. This move should be made to help negotiators understand and pay more attention to environmental issues during CJKFTA negotiations, and to help lobby with the government to carry out appropriate policy instruments for adaptation or mitigation. Following the Chain Reaction Assessment Method that integrates and links the elements of trade, production, and environment, the present research aims to quantitatively assess CJKFTA’s possible impact on China’s environment. This is done by estimating the variations of China’s major conventional pollutants and greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission in two policy scenarios to represent CJKFTA’s scale and composition effects on China’s environment. Estimating the variations is based on a static Computable General Equilibrium model, working with Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) 7 database and China’s energy-environment statistics. Based on these assessments, CJKFTA is predicted to lead to notable environmental impact, including increased emissions of agricultural total nitrogen, agricultural total phosphorus, chemical oxygen demand, and GHGs. On the other hand, decreased emissions of industrial SO₂ and dust are also expected to happen. Suitable policies need to be made to combat negative effects and amplify positive ones, while aiming at a more sustainable regional freer trade system.     

Influences of global environmental changes on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities: a review北大核心CSCD

丛枝菌根(arbuscular mycorrhizal, AM)真菌是生态系统地上地下部的重要连接体,对其群落结构特征的研究有助于菌种资源的发掘和生态系统的可持续发展.人类生产生活活动对全球环境带来了一系列的改变,如二氧化碳和臭氧浓度升高、氮沉降、增温及降水减少/增多等,全球环境变化对AM真菌群落结构的影响也引起了广泛关注.针对二氧化碳和臭氧浓度升高、增温、氮沉降和降水减少/增多等全球环境变化因子,总结其对AM真菌群落结构影响的国内外研究进展,探讨全球环境变化对AM真菌群落的可能作用途径.已有模拟全球环境变化实验研究主要集中于北半球的草原、农田和森林系统.大多研究发现二氧化碳和臭氧浓度升高未对AM真菌多样性产生不利影响,但使AM真菌群落结构显著分异.氮沉降和增温对AM真菌多样性的影响表现为降低、无显著影响和增加等多种情况,对AM真菌群落结构的影响也表现为未显著和显著分异,主要与模拟实验处理方式、增加幅度、土壤养分水平和生态系统类型等因素有关.降水减少未显著影响AM真菌群落结构和多样性,而降水增加使AM真菌群落结构发生显著分异.这些研究主要注重AM真菌群落结构和多样性如何改变等生态现象而潜在机理探索以及热带和南半球不同生态系统下的研究尚不足.另外,鉴于全球变化因子间的关联性,复合因子对AM真菌群落结构的影响值得重视.(图1表4参113)