Harmful and Needless Emission of Refrigerant and Countermeasures

Refrigerants used in refrigerators are an important source of ozone depleting substances released into the atmosphere, and can have a significantly negative effect on the hole in the ozone layer. But most-emission of refrigerants is man-made, unreasonable and needless. Since in most emission cases the refrigerants are contained in the refrigerators, we can retrieve them by some technique that changes the ＇manual emission＇ into manual retrieving. To promote the retrieval action and diminish the pollution, society can use economic, administrative and technical countermeasures, which can create a ＇good-cycle＇ both ＇harnessing pollution and earning income simultaneously＇, reinforce the motive of retrieving, and retrieve most proportion of refrigerants used by＇all refrigerators. This ＇good-cycle＇ method can be easily promoted, and also a valuable way to promote other forms of environmental protection. The three countermeasures have almost no social cost, even no cost at all.     

Harmful and Needless Emission of Refrigerant and Countermeasures

Abstract

Refrigerants used in refrigerators are an important source of ozone depleting substances released into the atmosphere, and can have a significantly negative effect on the hole in the ozone layer. But most emission of refrigerants is man-made, unreasonable and needless. Since in most emission cases the refrigerants are contained in the refrigerators, we can retrieve them by some technique that changes the ‘manual emission’ into manual retrieving. To promote the retrieval action and diminish the pollution, society can use economic, administrative and technical countermeasures, which can create a ‘good-cycle’ both ‘harnessing pollution and earning income simultaneously’, reinforce the motive of retrieving, and retrieve most proportion of refrigerants used by all refrigerators. This ‘good-cycle’ method can be easily promoted, and also a valuable way to promote other forms of environmental protection. The three countermeasures have almost no social cost, even no cost at all.     

Tipping Points and Climate Change: Metaphor Between Science and the Media

Over the past decade, scientists and journalists have prominently utilized the metaphor of a tipping point for drastic, irreversible and dangerous climate change. This paper shows how the tipping point metaphor became a multi-purpose bridge between science and the news media, describing how its meaning and use developed and diversified in interaction between these two domains. Within the scientific domain, the metaphor developed from a rhetorical device conveying a warning of drastic, irreversible and dangerous climate change to a theoretical concept driving empirical research. The news media soon picked up the tipping point metaphor for abrupt and dangerous climate change, turning it into a common part of the journalistic lexicon. Moreover, both science and the news media developed another, societal use of the tipping point metaphor, calling for radical societal change to avoid climate change catastrophe. The tipping point metaphor is hence not a monolithic notion but a highly versatile concept and expression, allowing it to be used for various communicative purposes by distinct stakeholders in different contexts.     

Theoretically exploring direct and indirect chemical effects across ecological and exposure scenarios using mechanistic fate and effects modelling

Predicting ecosystem response to chemicals is a complex problem in ecotoxicology and a challenge for risk assessors. The variables potentially influencing chemical fate and exposure define the exposure scenario while the variables determining effects at the ecosystem level define the ecological scenario. In absence of any empirical data, the objective of this paper is to present simulations by a fugacity-based fate model and a differential equation-based ecosystem model to theoretically explore how direct and indirect effects on invertebrate shallow pond communities vary with changing ecological and exposure scenarios. These simulations suggest that direct and indirect effects are larger in mesotrophic systems than in oligotrophic systems. In both trophic states, interaction strength (quantified using grazing rates) was suggested a more important driver for the size and recovery from direct and indirect effects than immigration rate. In general, weak interactions led to smaller direct and indirect effects. For chemicals targeting mesozooplankton only, indirect effects were common in (simple) food-chains but rare in (complex) food-webs. For chemicals directly affecting microzooplankton, the dominant zooplankton group in the modelled community, indirect effects occurred both in food-chains and food-webs. We conclude that the choice of the ecological and exposure scenarios in ecotoxicological modelling efforts needs to be justified because of its influence on the prevalence and magnitude of the predicted effects. Overall, more work needs to be done to empirically test the theoretical expectations formulated here.     

Omics and biotechnology of arsenic stress and detoxification in plants: Current updates and prospective

Arsenic (As), a naturally occurring metallic element, is a dreadful health hazard to millions of people across the globe. Arsenic is present in low amount in the environment and originates from anthropogenic impact and geogenic sources. The presence of As in groundwater used for irrigation is a worldwide problem as it affects crop productivity, accumulates to different tissues and contaminates food chain. The consumption of As contaminated water or food products leads to several diseases and even death. Recently, studies have been carried out to explore the biochemical and molecular mechanisms which contribute to As toxicity, accumulation, detoxification and tolerance acquisition in plants. This information has led to the development of the biotechnological tools for developing plants with modulated As tolerance and detoxification to safeguard cellular and genetic integrity as well as to minimize food chain contamination. This review aims to provide current updates about the biochemical and molecular networks involved in As uptake by plants and the recent developments in the area of functional genomics in terms of developing As tolerant and low As accumulating plants.     

Probabilistic risk assessment's use of trees and distributions to reflect uncertainty and variability and to overcome the limitations of default assumptions

Probabilistic risk assessment is an emerging approach to exposure assessment and quantitative cancer and non-cancer risk characterizations. The approach is easily extended to other types of risks and outcomes. A tree, like a decision tree or probability tree, encourages the evaluation of not only the default assumptions but also alternatives to those defaults, and reflects the uncertainty in the current state of knowledge. Trees are used in both the characterization of the dose received by individuals in a potential exposure situation and the characterization of the dose-response relationship for a specified response of concern. Probability distributions are used to reflect the variability in exposure, dose, and dose-response relationships among individuals and over time within individuals. Distributions incorporating variabilities, uncertainties, subjective probabilities, and expert judgments are used to characterize the probabilities of observing an individual in a population with a specified dose from exposure, with a specified probability of a certain adverse health effect for a designated dose, and with a specified probability of a certain adverse health effect (i.e., a specified risk). Some suggestions are given on how a risk manager can incorporate a distributional risk characterization into decision making. Some discussion is included concerning sensitivity analyses and path analyses. The major finding is methodology to explicitly incorporate variability, uncertainty, and alternatives to defaults into exposure, dose-response, and risk characterizations.     

Integrated Simulation and Modelling Approach to Decision Making and Environmental Protection

This paper's objective is first to test the application of computer simulation and modelling tools in investigating the effects of applying sustainable manufacturing practices in a smelter plant, and second, to prove quantitatively and visually that 'sustainibility is free'. A simulation model is built to test and capture two different operating polices, 'Policy 1' and 'Policy 2', of an industrial system. In the case study, the simulation model is designed to reflect the effects of decision making in the activites found in a smelter plant, and to quantify the cost, sustainable and environmental consequences based on the decisions. Apart from providing a means of accurately measuring a system's performance, the purpose of using simulation tools is also to link the economic factors, such as productivity and total costs, as well as the sustainable factors, such as natural resource and energy consumption of a system. The simulation results prove quantitatively and visually that sustainability is not only 'free' but is, in fact, a far better proposition for economic growth in the medium to longer term than traditional forms of management.     

环境载荷与环境压强:环境压力指标及应用

一个国家的经济活动产生的环境压力与其具有的环境承载能力。决定了该国社会与经济发展的可持续状况。因此．测度环境压力和承载力是制定可持续发展目标和政策的必要条件之一。基于国家尺度的社会代谢物质流、地理面积和生态承载面积。可以构建出一个国家本国环境所承受的环境压力总量指标体系——环境载荷和环境压强；德国、荷兰、奥地利、日本和美国等五个工业国家的环境载荷和各环境压强总量指标若干年的实证计算和对比分析。可以发现．虽然美国的国内环境总载荷、人均物质总需求及人均生态足迹赤字等均是各国最高者．其环境压强却处于五国的最低端。与奥地利相近；以环境压强指标测度。除日本不明显外．其余四国的经济发展与本国环境压力之间在研究期（1975—1996）均显示出“脱钩”关系．即本国环境压强并没有随经济总量的增长而增加。为此．最后就环境问题的公平性和环境压力指标的优缺点进行简要讨论。     

Autocenosis and democenosis as individual- and population-level ecological categories in terms of symbiogenesis and systems approach

According to the basic concept of the theory dealt with in this study, autocenosis, i.e., a self-regulatory host-symbiont system, rather than an individual, is the individual-level unit. Then, democenosis, which is a system of autocenoses, corresponds to the population level. Therefore, natural selection of autocenoses rather than individuals occurs in a democenosis, and auto- and democenoses, rather than “individuals” and “populations,” are components of food chains and webs. However, the symbiotic approach does not exclude the population paradigm and will be developed in parallel with it.     

Mutagenic and carcinogenic potency of extracts of diesel and related environmental emissions: Summary and discussion of the results

The proposed conversion from gasoline powered automobiles to diesel powered vehicels has prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to evaluate the potential health effects associated with exposure to diesel emissions. At present, there is no direct epidemiological link between this exposure and human health. Therefore, a research program was constructed to compare the health effects associated with diesel emissions with those from other emission sources for which epidemiological information was available. The emission sources chosen were cigarette smoke, roofing tar, and coke oven. An additional comparative emission source which was a gasoline catalyst engine. Respirable particles from a variety of combustion sources have the potential of being carcinogenic and mutagenic. The objective of these studies was to determine the relative biological activity of the organic material adsorbed on these particles in both in vitro mutagenesis and in vitro and in vivo bioassays. The organic extracts from the following series of emission sources were quantitatively bioassayed in a matrix of tests for their carcinogenic and mutagenic activity: (1) a light-duty Oldsmobile diesel 350 engine; (2) a heavy-duty Caterpillar diesel engine; (3) a light-duty Nissan engine; (4) a Volkswagen Rabbit diesel engine; (5) cigarette smoke; (6) roofing tar; (7) coke oven; and (8) a gasoline catalyst Mustang. The test matrix consisted of the following bioassay: reverse mutation in Salmonella typhimurium; mitotic recombination in Saccharomyces cerevisiae; DNA damage in Syrian hamster embryo cells (SHE); sister chromatid exchange in CHO cells; gene mutation in L5178Y mouse lymphoma cells, Balb/c 3T3 mouse embryo fibroblasts and CHO cells; viral enhancement of SHE cells; oncogenic transformation in Balb/c 3T3 cells; and skin tumor initiation in SENCAR and C57 black mice. The results of this test matrix are discussed.     

226Ra and 228Ra in scale and sludge samples and their correlation with the chemical composition

In order to contribute to a future waste management policy related to the presence of technologically enhanced natural occurring radioactive material (TENORM) in the Brazilian petroleum industry, the present work presents the chemical composition and the (226)Ra and (228)Ra content of sludge and scales generated during the offshore E and P petroleum activities in the Campos Basin, the primary offshore oil production region in Brazil. The (226)Ra and (228)Ra content on 36 sludge and scales samples were determined by gamma-spectrometry. Based on X-ray diffractometry results, a chemical analysis schema for these samples was developed. The results have shown that scales are 75% barium and strontium sulfates, with a mean (226)Ra and (228)Ra content of 106 kBq kg(-1) and 78 kBq kg(-1), respectively. On the other hand, sludge samples have a much more complex chemical composition than the scales. The (226)Ra and (228)Ra content in sludge also varies much more than the content observed in the scales samples and ranged from 0.36 to 367 kBq kg(-1) and 0.25 to 343 kBq kg(-1), respectively.     

全球绿色低碳发展与公平的国际制度建设

在可持续发展和扶贫框架下发展绿色经济与国际可持续发展制度建设及改革是当前世界可持续发展的核心和关键,也是"里约+20"峰会的两个主题。首先,绿色经济是体现经济社会与资源环境相协调和可持续发展的根本途径。绿色经济的核心是以低的自然资源消费、低排放、低污染,达到高的自然资源利用效益,实现高的经济社会发展水平,提供高的生活水平和优良的生活环境。全球绿色经济的发展潮流,将引发社会形态由"工业文明"向"生态文明"转变。虽然经济发展和消除贫困是发展中国家当前首要和压倒一切的优先任务,但也必须探索新型的绿色低碳工业化和现代化道路,在实现工业文明的过程中,努力建设生态文明,实现跨越式发展。同时积极应对全球绿色低碳转型中新的经济、贸易、技术竞争规则和格局的变动,加强先进技术创新,提升自身的低碳竞争力。其次,公平获取可持续发展的理念,应成为国际可持续发展制度建设和改革的基本原则。可持续发展要求既要促进经济社会发展与资源环境相协调,促进"代际公平",又要关注欠发达地区消除贫困,提高生活质量,改善生态环境,实现"国别公平"、"人际公平"。因此,国际可持续发展制度框架的建设和改革,要体现世界各国公平获取可持续发展的理念和原则,全面均衡地反映不同国情和发展阶段国家的利益诉求。主要表现在公平享有全球环境空间、公平获得现代优质能源服务、公平适应全球环境变化、公平承担责任义务及公平的国际制度和机制。中国需要统筹国内外两个大局,走中国特色的绿色低碳发展之路。最后,中国的国情和发展阶段特征,在可持续发展领域又面临比发达国家更多的困难和更严峻的挑战。在全球发展绿色经济,努力实现可持续发展的大背景下,中国要统筹国际国内两个大局,协调推进。在国际上积极参与国际制度的建设和改革,在促进全球经济发展,社会进步和环境保护等方面发挥积极的建设性的作用。在国内加强可持续发展战略的实施,走绿色、低碳和可持续发展的路径。主要战略对策包括加速转变发展方式,强化节能优先,控制能源消费总量和CO2排放总量的过快增长;加强能源结构的低碳化,逐步建立并形成以新能源和可再生能源为主体的可持续能源体系;加强城乡统筹,地区平衡,促进生态城市建设;适应国际可持续发展制度改革的趋势,加强绿色低碳和可持续发展的制度建设;抓住机遇,顺应世界绿色低碳发展潮流,自主实现发展方式的转变,把传统的资源依赖型、粗放扩张的发展方式转变到新型的技术创新型、内涵提高的发展方式上来,基本走上绿色低碳和可持续发展的轨道。     

Vegetation and climate

Over the last two centuries, man's activities have caused a 30% increase in the atmospheric concentration of CO₂, with continued increases seeming inevitable. This change in CO₂ concentration will act on vegetation, both directly and indirectly through global climatic change. It is well established that, on a global scale, patterns of vegetation and climate are closely correlated. Such correlations indicate that climatic change will cause the distribution of vegetation to change. However, the use of correlations for predicting vegetation responses to climatic change is fundamentally unreliable because correlations have no mechanistic underpinning of causation. This paper outlines a mechanistic model for predicting the equilibrium state between current climate and vegetation. It is also used to indicate the sensitivity of global vegetation to the changed climate associated with a doubled CO₂—greenhouse scenario. The interpretation of this static model is discussed in terms of rates and patterns of vegetation change.     

Ra and Ra in scale and sludge samples and their correlation with the chemical composition

In order to contribute to a future waste management policy related to the presence of technologically enhanced natural occurring radioactive material (TENORM) in the Brazilian petroleum industry, the present work presents the chemical composition and the ²²⁶Ra and ²²⁸Ra content of sludge and scales generated during the offshore E and P petroleum activities in the Campos Basin, the primary offshore oil production region in Brazil.The ²²⁶Ra and ²²⁸Ra content on 36 sludge and scales samples were determined by gamma-spectrometry. Based on X-ray diffractometry results, a chemical analysis schema for these samples was developed. The results have shown that scales are 75% barium and strontium sulfates, with a mean ²²⁶Ra and ²²⁸Ra content of 106 kBq kg⁻¹ and 78 kBq kg⁻¹, respectively. On the other hand, sludge samples have a much more complex chemical composition than the scales. The ²²⁶Ra and ²²⁸Ra content in sludge also varies much more than the content observed in the scales samples and ranged from 0.36 to 367 kBq kg⁻¹ and 0.25 to 343 kBq kg⁻¹, respectively.     

Radioecology, radiobiology, and radiological protection: frameworks and fractures

A framework for the protection of the general public has been in existence for a very long time, although steps have recently been made by the ICRP to ensure that it is more fully comprehensive with regard to all actual and potential exposure situations. Protection of the environment, however, has only recently begun to be addressed in a structured manner, and is still an evolving subject. Nevertheless, it needs to be centred around some form of parallel framework to that which has evolved for the protection of human beings, although clearly on a different scale. It also needs to be embedded within the basic science of radiobiology, and form a central part of radioecology.     

Identifying and modeling key trade-offs between hydrogen fuel cell and electric vehicles

Through a sensitivity analysis, the trade-off between vehicle range and CO₂ emissions is investigated as a function of electric emissions coefficient. Various powertrains were analysed for use in a small crossover sport utility vehicle. Gasoline, gasoline electric hybrid, diesel, fuel cell and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) were considered. Using various upstream fuel pathways and a model for vehicle performance, emissions and energy use were estimated. The hydrogen fuel cell vehicle was found preferable to BEVs under conditions of high CO₂ emissions per kW-hr and a high vehicle range requirement. The BEV was preferable for all other conditions.     

Development and use of water quality criteria and standards in the United States

Water quality criteria, as a means of distinguishing "good" water from "bad" water, have been employed for over 150 years. During the 1940s and 1950s, the formulation of water quality criteria and their role in water quality management were hotly debated in the United States as each state formulated its own approach to water pollution control. In 1965, when the federal government assumed control of water quality management in the US, a single, national approach to the formulation and use of criteria had to be selected and implemented nationwide. The purpose of this paper is to briefly review the history of criteria as a basis for water quality management in the US; note the different water quality management philosophies used by states prior to 1965; and summarize the relationship of criteria to monitoring over the past 30 years. Standards, as legal instruments, are developed for a specific water body by designating a use of the water (society value) and the criteria necessary to protect the use (a scientific finding). Standard violation, as a concept, tends to remain as a single-sample exercise (i.e., the sample measurement is either above or below the standard). Increasingly, however, there is a demand to classify large bodies of water (e.g., lake, river segment, or aquifer), over a set time period, such as a day, year, or decade, as either in compliance or in violation of water quality standards. No peer-reviewed, standardized method for computing standard "violations" has been widely accepted for this purpose. The paper ends with a call to develop such methods, if water quality managers must produce standard violation information (infer sample results) over time and space. Electronic Publication     

Industrial complexes and their relevance for pulp and paper mills

Advantages and disadvantages of the concept of an industrial complex are discussed. From an environmental standpoint an ideal industrial complex is one containing a group of compatible industrial plants utilizing completely each other's wastes and products as raw materials and manufacturing products with no adverse environmental impact and at a minimum of cost. A typical complex centering about a pulp and papermill is pictured in this paper. This complex produces six products for external sale and four products for internal use. In addition, all major wastes of suspended solids, cooking liquor, fillers, heat and bark are reused within the complex in the manufacture of these products. A literature review evolved typical concentrations of recoverable suspended solids in various process effluents. A mass balance was prepared assuming that the total production of fine paper is 907.2 kg × 10³ (1000 tons) per day. Little or no air or water pollution results from this complex. In addition, it is anticipated that no expensive waste-water treatment plant would be required for this complex. Ten additional practices are described which, when used, will reduce operating costs even further. A continuing study with more precise data on the production requirements for the service plants in the complex will yield a more balanced and realistic system.     

Heavy metal levels and esterase variations between metal-exposed and unexposed duckweed Lemna minor: field and laboratory studies

Environmental homogeneity is being continuously disturbed and affected by artificially introduced loads of chemical toxicants that also include heavy metals. The Tiljala wetlands of the eastern fringe of Calcutta, West Bengal (India) are a virtual sink for the deposition of urban and industrial wastes that get admixed with the aquatic environment. We have selected Lemna minor (duckweed), as a representative of the biota surviving therein for the present study. Concentrations of lead, cadmium, chromium, zinc, copper and mercury in the fronds of Lemna were measured to peep into the range of input of heavy metals in the duckweed subjects. Natural unexposed population of duckweed from a domestic pond in Batanagar area, 24 Parganas, West Bengal (India) was also found to accumulate similar concentrations of these metals when cultured in artificially contaminated water in the laboratory. The exposed individuals also exhibited polymorphism with respect to the loci of esterase, as compared to an unexposed control plants. Therefore, the present study suggests EST variations of L. minor to be a potential biomarker of heavy metal pollution.     

Wind power projects in Brazil: challenges and opportunities increasing co-benefits and implications for climate and energy policies

The purpose of this article is to analyze the challenges to, and opportunities for, increasing sustainable development (SD) co-benefits delivered by clean development mechanism (CDM) wind power projects in northeastern Brazil and the resulting implications for climate and energy policies. Five methodological phases were met: First, a documentary research was conducted in the main CDM database; second was a literature review, creating the analytical framework and a survey questionnaire needed to assess the SD co-benefits from the projects; third, documentary research was used to enable ex-ante analysis of the SD co-benefits proposed in the CDM Project Design Documents (PDDs); fourth, survey allowed for the analysis of SD co-benefits perceived by project entrepreneurs (ex-post analysis); and finally, a comparison between the ex-ante and ex-post analyses was completed. The results show the importance of carrying out SD co-benefit studies after the implementation of CDM projects in order to learn lessons for new mechanisms of climate governance. The lowest SD co-benefits were water management improvement in the project influence area, soil pollution prevention, health and safety improvements and technology transfer. The greatest opportunities for increasing SD co-benefits come from the environmental licensing process and the strengthening of Corporate Social Responsibility. The greatest challenges are new technology development, stakeholders’ engagement and SD co-benefit audits. We conclude that the improvement of multi-level climate and energy governance plays a key role in increasing SD co-benefits.