Open burning of household waste: Effect of experimental condition on combustion quality and emission of PCDD, PCDF and PCB

Open burning for waste disposal is, in many countries, the dominant source of polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, dibenzofurans and biphenyls (PCDD/PCDF/PCB) release to the environment. To generate emission factors for open burning, experimental pile burns of about 100 kg of household waste were conducted with emissions sampling. From these experiments and others conducted by the same authors it is found that less compaction of waste or active mixing during the fire - “stirring” - promotes better combustion (as evidenced by lower CO/CO₂ ratio) and reduces emissions of PCDD/PCDF/PCB; an intuitive but previously undemonstrated result. These experiments also support previous results suggesting PCDD/PCDF/PCB generation in open burning - while still highly variable - tends to be greater in the later (smoldering) phases of burning when the CO/CO₂ ratio increases.     

Using internet search behavior to assess public awareness of protected wetlands

Improving public awareness of protected wetlands facilitates sustainable wetland management, which depends on public participation. One way of gauging public interest is by tracking Internet search behavior (ISB). We assessed public awareness of issues related to protected wetland areas (PWAs) in South Korea by examining the frequencies of specific queries (PWAs, Ramsar, Upo wetland, Sunchon Bay, etc.) using relative search volumes (RSVs) obtained from an Internet search engine. RSV shows how many times a search term is used relative to a second search term during a specific period. Public awareness of PWAs changed from 2007 to 2013. Initially the majority of Internet searches were related to the most well‐known tidal and inland wetlands Sunchon Bay and Upo wetlands, which are the largest existing wetlands in Korea with the greatest historical exposure. Public awareness, as reflected in RSVs, of wetlands increased significantly following PWA designation for the wetlands in 2008, which followed the Ramsar 10th Conference of Contracting Parties to the Convention on Wetlands (COP10) meeting. Public interest was strongly correlated to the number of news articles in the popular media, as evidenced by the increase in Internet searches for specific wetlands and words associated with specific wetlands. Correspondingly, the number of visitors to specific wetlands increased. To increase public interest in wetlands, wetland aspects that enhance wetland conservation should be promoted by the government and enhanced via public education. Our approach can be used to gauge public awareness and participation in a wide range of conservation efforts.     

Synergies and trade‐offs in achieving global biodiversity targets

After their failure to achieve a significant reduction in the global rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, world governments adopted 20 new ambitious Aichi biodiversity targets to be met by 2020. Efforts to achieve one particular target can contribute to achieving others, but different targets may sometimes require conflicting solutions. Consequently, lack of strategic thinking might result, once again, in a failure to achieve global commitments to biodiversity conservation. We illustrate this dilemma by focusing on Aichi Target 11. This target requires an expansion of terrestrial protected area coverage, which could also contribute to reducing the loss of natural habitats (Target 5), reducing human‐induced species decline and extinction (Target 12), and maintaining global carbon stocks (Target 15). We considered the potential impact of expanding protected areas to mitigate global deforestation and the consequences for the distribution of suitable habitat for >10,000 species of forest vertebrates (amphibians, birds, and mammals). We first identified places where deforestation might have the highest impact on remaining forests and then identified places where deforestation might have the highest impact on forest vertebrates (considering aggregate suitable habitat for species). Expanding protected areas toward locations with the highest deforestation rates (Target 5) or the highest potential loss of aggregate species’ suitable habitat (Target 12) resulted in partially different protected area network configurations (overlapping with each other by about 73%). Moreover, the latter approach contributed to safeguarding about 30% more global carbon stocks than the former. Further investigation of synergies and trade‐offs between targets would shed light on these and other complex interactions, such as the interaction between reducing overexploitation of natural resources (Targets 6, 7), controlling invasive alien species (Target 9), and preventing extinctions of native species (Target 12). Synergies between targets must be identified and secured soon and trade‐offs must be minimized before the options for co‐benefits are reduced by human pressures.     

童工在农业活动中接触农药的危害

本文以"鹿特丹公约"缔约方第五次会议为背景,主要介绍了联合国粮食农业组织(FAO)和国际劳工组织(ILO)共同组织的有关"童工在农业活动中接触农药的危害"专题会议内容和意义。同时,通过儿童会接触到农药的具体例子,说明儿童接触有毒物质比成年人更易受到危害。     

电石法聚氯乙烯行业履约的成本效益分析

构建汞物质平衡模型以识别高汞触媒及低汞触媒电石法聚氯乙烯(CCPVC)企业中汞的产生、转化和排放过程.进一步针对典型企业开展成本效益分析,比较通过低汞触媒替代来履行《关于汞的水俣公约》要求的各种方案.结果表明,案例企业将在履约的情况下,使废气和废水汞排放量分别减少25%和85.7%~98.9%,净效益增加50.7%~55.4%.案例企业最有利的选择将是在厂内回收废触媒并改进汞减排设施,但含汞固体废物的环境风险不可忽视.原因是《关于汞的水俣公约》侧重于CCPVC行业的汞输入而非汞排放.此外,目前的汞环境税率低于最优税率,无法为CCPVC企业提供足够的激励以控制汞排放.因此,为了提高《关于汞的水俣公约》的政策效力,有必要推动我国CCPVC行业汞物质平衡的构建,加强对含汞固体废物堆存的监管力度,提高汞排放的环境税率,并将所含的环境风险物质量作为固体废物的计税依据.     

Monitoring Change in Vertebrate Abundance: the Living Planet Index

Abstract:  The task of measuring the decline of global biodiversity and instituting changes to halt and reverse this downturn has been taken up in response to the Convention on Biological Diversity's 2010 target. It is an undertaking made more difficult by the complex nature of biodiversity and the consequent difficulty in accurately gauging its depletion. In the Living Planet Index, aggregated population trends among vertebrate species indicate the rate of change in the status of biodiversity, and this index can be used to address the question of whether or not the 2010 target has been achieved. We investigated the use of generalized additive models in aggregating large quantities of population trend data, evaluated potential bias that results from collation of existing trends, and explored the feasibility of disaggregating the data (e.g., geographically, taxonomically, regionally, and by thematic area). Our results show strengths in length and completeness of data, little evidence of bias toward threatened species, and the possibility of disaggregation into meaningful subsets. Limitations of the data set are still apparent, in particular the dominance of bird data and gaps in tropical-species population coverage. Population-trend data complement the longer-term, but more coarse-grained, perspectives gained by evaluating species-level extinction rates. To measure progress toward the 2010 target, indicators must be adapted and strategically supplemented with existing data to generate meaningful indicators in time. Beyond 2010, it is critical a strategy be set out for the future development of indicators that will deal with existing data gaps and that is intricately tied to the goals of future biodiversity targets.     

Exploring discourses on international environmental regime effectiveness with Q methodology: a case study of the Mediterranean Action Plan

Extensive research has been done on the 'high politics' of negotiations of international environmental agreements. However, little attention has been paid to the effectiveness of their implementation after coming into force. Effectiveness cannot be easily measured, since different stakeholders use different criteria as the basis of their opinion. The purpose of this study is to investigate discourses on the effectiveness of an international environmental regime. The regime chosen is the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) - and its legal framework, the Barcelona Convention - which was established in 1975 under the aegis of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Q methodology was used to reveal discourses on the effectiveness of UNEP/MAP. After collecting relevant literature and identifying the stakeholders, 25 in-depth interviews were conducted. The stakeholders were from the Secretariat of the Convention, academia, NGO workers, and others that studied or knew the subject well. From these interviews 294 statements were extracted, from which 44 were finally selected to be used in the Q study. The interviewees were approached for the second time to complete the Q sorts. This study revealed four distinct discourses concerning the effectiveness of international environmental regimes. It concludes that there is no one 'right' way of defining effectiveness and that no approach can provide more than a partial evaluation of the overall effectiveness of a regime.     

The elaboration of the 'Stockholm convention' on persistent organic pollutants (POPs): a negotiation process fraught with obstacles and opportunities

The conclusion in December 2000 of the negotiations for the 'Stockholm Convention' can clearly be labeled as a success. The Convention text was negotiated in merely five sessions of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) and accomplished after its fifth session despite the fact that numerous controversial issues, such as the inclusion of new substances under the ambit of the Convention, the acknowledgement of the precautionary principle or--clearly most controversial--the financing mechanisms, remained to be resolved. This paper attempts to provide a somewhat impressionistic account of the negotiations leading to the conclusion of the 'Stockholm Convention' as experienced by the members of the Swiss delegation participating in the negotiations of the INC. Besides a brief overview on the 'history' of the negotiations, it will focus on some issues of special interest--and controversy--to the negotiators, and finally attempt to provide an outlook on the future of the work performed by the INC and the implementation of the Convention. Issues of special interest are environmental policy issues, capacity building and financing, trade-related issues, precautionary principles, and technical and scientific issues.     

Possibilities and options for the Clean Development Mechanism and the Green Investment Scheme in Central and Eastern Europe: Macedonian and Romanian perspectives

Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is a rapidly changing and developing region which is making the transition to a market based economy. Along with economic reforms, the countries of the region are engaged in substantial environmental reforms, including climate change mitigation activities. Mitigation of, and adaptation to, the consequences of climate change are costly processes. It is therefore of great importance that the national and international mechanisms addressing these problems use methods both environmentally sound and economically efficient. Through two case studies that address the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and the Green Investment Scheme (GIS) in Romania, this paper explores challenges, related tasks and main problems in the establishment of mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol in Central and Eastern Europe.     

European Critical Loads of Cadmium, Lead and Mercury and their Exceedances

Critical loads of cadmium, lead and mercury were computed by 18 countries of the LRTAP Convention. These national data were collated into a single database for the purpose of identifying sensitive areas in Europe. Computing exceedances, i.e. comparing the critical loads to atmospheric deposition, shows that cadmium was not a widespread risk in 2000, that the risk from lead deposition has decreased since 1990 but was still widespread in 2000, and that the risk from mercury remains high without much change from 1990 to 2000 in most of the countries.