Local and Indigenous management of climate change risks to archaeological sites

Hundreds of thousands of significant archaeological and cultural heritage sites (cultural sites) along the coasts of every continent are threatened by sea level rise, and many will be destroyed. This wealth of artefacts and monuments testifies to human history, cosmology and identity. While cultural sites are especially important to local and Indigenous communities, a stall in coordinated global action means adaptation at a local scale is often unsupported. In response, this paper produces a practical climate change risk analysis methodology designed for independent, community-scale management of cultural sites. It builds on existing methods that prioritise sites most at risk from climate impacts, proposing a field survey that integrates an assessment of the relative cultural value of sites with assessment of exposure and sensitivity to climate impacts. The field survey also stands as a monitoring program and complements an assessment of organisational adaptive capacity. The preliminary field survey was tested by Indigenous land managers in remote northern Australia at midden and rock art sites threatened by sea level rise, extreme flood events and a range of non-climactic hazards. A participatory action research methodology—incorporating planning workshops, semi-structured interviews and participant observations—gave rise to significant modifications to the preliminary field survey as well as management prioritisation of 120 sites. The field survey is anticipated to have global application, particularly among marginalised and remote Indigenous communities. Well-planned and informed participation, with community control, monitoring and well-informed actions, will contribute significantly to coordinated global and regional adaptation strategies.     

CO2 Capture and Storage with Leakage in an Energy-Climate Model

Geological CO₂ capture and storage (CCS) is among the main near-term contenders for addressing the problem of global climate change. Even in a baseline scenario, with no comprehensive international climate policy, a moderate level of CCS technology is expected to be deployed, given the economic benefits associated with enhanced oil and gas recovery. With stringent climate change control, CCS technologies will probably be installed on an industrial scale. Geologically stored CO₂, however, may leak back to the atmosphere, which could render CCS ineffective as climate change reduction option. This article presents a long-term energy scenario study for Europe, in which we assess the significance for climate policy making of leakage of CO₂ artificially stored in underground geological formations. A detailed sensitivity analysis is performed for the CO₂ leakage rate with the bottom-up energy systems model MARKAL, enriched for this purpose with a large set of CO₂ capture technologies (in the power sector, industry, and for the production of hydrogen) and storage options (among which enhanced oil and gas recovery, enhanced coal bed methane recovery, depleted fossil fuel fields, and aquifers). Through a series of model runs, we confirm that a leakage rate of 0.1%/year seems acceptable for CCS to constitute a meaningful climate change mitigation option, whereas one of 1%/year is not. CCS is essentially no option to achieve CO₂ emission reductions when the leakage rate is as high as 1%/year, so more reductions need to be achieved through the use of renewables or nuclear power, or in sectors like industry and transport. We calculate that under strict climate control policy, the cumulative captured and geologically stored CO₂ by 2100 in the electricity sector, when the leakage rate is 0.1%/year, amounts to about 45,000 MtCO₂. Only a little over 10,000 MtCO₂ cumulative power-generation-related emissions are captured and stored underground by the end of the century when the leakage rate is 1%/year. Overall marginal CO₂ abatement costs increase from a few €/tCO₂ today to well over 150 €/tCO₂ in 2100, under an atmospheric CO₂ concentration constraint of 550 ppmv. Carbon costs in 2100 turn out to be about 40 €/tCO₂ higher when the annual leakage rate is 1%/year in comparison to when there is no CO₂ leakage. Irrespective of whether CCS deployment is affected by gradual CO₂ seepage, the annual welfare loss in Europe induced by the implementation of policies preventing “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system” (under our assumption, implying a climate stabilisation target of 550 ppmv CO₂ concentration) remains below 0.5% of GDP during the entire century.

The energy consumption of Paris and its supply areas from the eighteenth century to the present

Since the eighteenth century and the industrial revolution, cities have experienced great changes in their metabolism, and particularly in their energy consumption: transitions from one energy source to another, growing per capita consumption, and total consumption to cite but a few. These changes also impact urban energy supply areas and supply distance. This paper estimates Paris??s energy demand in both final and primary terms since the eighteenth century and gives an illustration of long-term socio-ecological interactions in an interdisciplinary perspective, connecting energy flow analysis, and historical research. It gives an overview of energy supply areas and assesses the distance between supply sites and the city. Paris??s annual total energy requirement (TER) was about 19?GJ per capita at the beginning of the eighteenth century and reached 30?GJ per capita in 1800; the supply area remained nearly the same with an average supply distance (D_avg) of 200?km. During the nineteenth century, Paris??s population increased fivefold, and energy transitioned from biomass to fossil fuel. Per capita TER remained stable, whereas Paris??s supply area moved progressively toward coal basins, in connection with the tremendous change in transport systems. As a consequence, the D_avg grew to 270?km around 1870. During the twentieth century, and especially since the Interwar period, per capita TER increased considerably (to 26?GJ/cap/year in 1910, 47?GJ/cap/year in 1946 and 126?GJ/cap/year in 2006). The internationalization of the energy supply and the shift to petroleum and natural gas also increased the remoteness of the supply sites: the D_avg equaled 3850?km in 2006.     

Situating Hazard Vulnerability: People’s Negotiations with Wildfire Environments in the U.S. Southwest

This article is based on a multimethod study designed to clarify influences on wildfire hazard vulnerability in Arizona’s White Mountains, USA. Findings reveal that multiple factors operating across scales generate socially unequal wildfire risks. At the household scale, conflicting environmental values, reliance on fire insurance and firefighting institutions, a lack of place dependency, and social vulnerability (e.g., a lack of financial, physical, and/or legal capacity to reduce risks) were found to be important influences on wildfire risk. At the regional-scale, the shift from a resource extraction to environmental amenity-based economy has transformed ecological communities, produced unequal social distributions of risks and resources, and shaped people’s social and environmental interactions in everyday life. While working-class locals are more socially vulnerable than amenity migrants to wildfire hazards, they have also been more active in attempting to reduce risks in the aftermath of the disastrous 2002 Rodeo-Chediski fire. Social tensions between locals and amenity migrants temporarily dissolved immediately following the disaster, only to be exacerbated by the heightened perception of risk and the differential commitment to hazard mitigation displayed by these groups over a 2-year study period. Findings suggest that to enhance wildfire safety, environmental managers should acknowledge the environmental benefits associated with hazardous landscapes, the incentives created by risk management programs, and the specific constraints to action for relevant social groups in changing human-environmental context.     

Scale and sustainability of marine bioprospecting for pharmaceuticals

Collecting marine organisms for the discovery and development of pharmaceuticals has been perceived variously as sustaining and threatening conservation. Our initial expectations that marine bioprospecting might pose conservation challenges were largely not confirmed. Thousands of marine species have been collected for initial assessment, but usually only in very small amounts. Very few compounds are sufficiently promising to provoke re-collections, where volumes can be much larger. This is where conservation concerns may arise, particularly if the organism is rare, has a restricted distribution, or is targeted in one narrow area. However, industry generally seeks to avoid dependency on small populations, for economic as well as ecological reasons. Alternative supply strategies to wild capture include synthesis and culture. Mandatory collection protocols and environmental impact (stock) assessments are useful routes for management to achieve sustainable use where extraction is desirable. In general, the scanty information available suggests that marine bioprospecting for pharmaceuticals may have minimal impacts on the environment, particularly compared with those created by other pressures.     

A LOW COST DRIP IRRIGATION SYSTEM FOR SMALL FARMERS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES1

ABSTRACT: In areas where water is scarce, drip irrigation provides the most efficient way to conserve irrigation water, but its cost of £1000 an acre is prohibitive for most small farmers in developing countries. The cost was reduced by 90 percent by (1) making dripper lines moveable, so that each line reaches ten rows instead of one; (2) replacing 25-cent emitters with simple 0.70 mm holes punched by a heated needle; and (3) using £3.00 off-the-shelf 20 liter containers with cloth filters in place of expensive filter systems. This reduced the cost of a half-acre system to £50. The low cost system was field tested in the hill areas of Nepal, and in mulberry cultivation in Andhra Pradesh, India. Uniformity of flow from emitters was 73–84 percent. Small farmers reported that the low cost trickle irrigation system cut labor requirements in half, and doubled the area irrigated by the same amount of water. The low cost drip system is likely to be widely adopted by small farmers in semi-arid and hilly regions.     

Exploratory study of suspended sediment concentrations downstream of harvested peat bogs

Peat bog harvesting is an important industry in many countries, including Canada. To harvest peat, bogs are drained and drainage water is evacuated towards neighboring rivers, estuaries or coastal waters. High suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) were found in the drainage water at one particular site during the 2001–2002 spring seasons in New Brunswick (Canada). The main objective of this study was to verify this observation at other sites, compare SSC levels leaving harvested peat bogs with those leaving an unharvested bog, and to determine if high SSC events happen only in Spring or all year round. Suspended sediment concentrations were monitored downstream of three harvested peat bogs and an unharvested reference bog located in New Brunswick during the ice free seasons of 2003–2004. On average, SSC at the harvested sites exceeded 25 mg/l, which is the recommended daily maximum concentration, 72% of the time, while the same concentration was exceeded 30% of the time at the unharvested sites. SSC were found to be significantly higher at harvested sites than at the reference sites for all seasons. The highest SSC medians were recorded in the Fall but SSC was elevated in all seasons. High SSC levels in receiving waters may be caused by field ditching activities and insufficient sediment controls. Findings suggest the NB Peat Harvesting 25 mg/l SSC guideline should be reviewed.     

“EMPRESS”计划:通过改善管理实现持久地节约能源

联合国环境规划署(UNEP)和全球环境组织正在中欧和和东欧发起"EMPRESS”(有关能源管理和执行的节约计划)计划.这项计划集中了两个既定的提高能源效率的手段--能源服务机构(ESCOs)和监测与确定指标系统(M＆T)--,以便通过低成本手段以及改善管理方法减少二氧化碳的排放执行费用将由如此节约能源后产生的效益承担.     

The big clean up: social marketing for the Auckland region

The Big Clean Up (BCU) started in 2001 as Auckland Regional Council's (ARC) sustainability social marketing project and arose from catalysts for change that occurred within ARC in the late 1990s—leadership, training, partnerships and values. The BCU features strong marketing images and messages that have increased awareness and participation in the region according to extensive stakeholder surveys. It is intended to engage individuals and households in sustainable living—especially among the public middle ground—not those already committed to a green lifestyle. Membership of BCU after one year is about 44,000—almost one in ten households. Although ARC has considered the BCU successful, questions arise about the level of resilience of the campaigns without ongoing investment in expensive multimedia advertising and other initiatives. The paper concludes with a discussion on the impact of the underlying pedagogy in the light of social marketing and behaviour change theory.