Efficacy-based and normative interventions for facilitating the diffusion of conservation behavior through social networks

Research suggests that encouraging motivated residents to reach out to others in their social network is an effective strategy for increasing the scale and speed of conservation action adoption. However, little is known about how to effectively encourage large numbers of residents to reach out to others about conservation causes. We examined the influence of normative and efficacy-based messaging at motivating residents to engage in and to encourage others to participate in native plant gardening in their community. To do so, we conducted a field experiment with messages on mailings and tracked native plant vouchers used. Efficacy messages tended to be more effective than normative messages at increasing residents’ willingness to reach out to others to encourage conservation action, as indicated by a several percentage point increase in native plant voucher use by residents’ friends and neighbors. Messages sometimes had different impacts on residents based on past behaviors and perceptions related to native plant gardening. Among these subgroups, efficacy and combined efficacy and norm messages most effectively encouraged individual and collective actions, as indicated by increased voucher usage. Our findings suggest that interventions that build residents’ efficacy for engaging in a conservation behavior and for reaching out to others may be a promising path forward for outreach. However, given our results were significant at a false discovery rate cutoff of 0.25 but not 0.05, more experimental trials are needed to determine the robustness of these trends.     

Traditional agriculture in transition: examining the impacts of agricultural modernization on smallholder farming in Ghana under the new Green Revolution

Following the renewed effort at achieving a new green revolution for Africa, emphasis has been placed on modernizing smallholder agriculture through the deployment of improved inputs especially mechanized technologies. In Ghana, the government has in the last decade emphasized the provision of subsidized mechanized ploughing services to farmers alongside a rapidly growing private sector tractor service market. While mechanized technology adoption rates have increased rapidly, the deployment of these technologies has been without critical analysis of the impacts on production patterns and local agrarian systems. This paper examines the distributional impacts of agriculture mechanization on cropping patterns and farm sizes of smallholder farmers in northern Ghana using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques, and semi-structured interviews with smallholder farmers (n=60). Specifically, comparative analysis of the field sizes and cropping patterns of participant farmers prior to and after the adoption of mechanized technologies was conducted. In-depth interviews were used to contextualize the experiences of smallholder farmers toward understanding how mechanization may be impacting traditional agriculture. Our findings reveal a mechanization paradox in which farm sizes are expanding, while cropping patterns are shifting away from traditional staple crops (pearl millet and sorghum bicolor) to market-oriented crops (maize, rice and groundnuts). This transition we argue, has adverse implications on the cultural dimension of food security, the organization of social life, and climate change adaptation. We recommend a retooling of the current agricultural policy focus to ensure context sensitivity for a more robust battle against food insecurity.     

The Influence of Chironomus plumosus Larvae on Nutrient Fluxes and Phosphorus Fractions in Aluminum Treated Lake Sediment

One of the methods to diminish the internal phosphorus (P) loading is inactivation of P by aluminum (Al). After addition of Al to lake water an Al(OH)₃ floc is formed, which settles to the bottom and initially form a lid on the sediment surface. The effects of Chironomus plumosus larvae on sediment nutrient fluxes and P binding-sites in the sediment after addition of Al were tested. C. plumosus larvae were added to sediment cores in which sediment–water fluxes of nutrients were measured four times. After one month, the sediment was sectioned with depth and P fractions were measured by sequential chemical extraction. The chironomids created burrows through the Al layer which caused a significantly increased efflux of P from the Al treated sediment, because the P had only limited contact to the added Al. The chironomids also affected the P fractions in the sediment by their bioturbating activity. Thus, they caused increased Al concentrations in the upper part of the Al treated sediment. This created an enhanced contact between Al and P in the upper 7 cm of the sediment and, as a result, an increased binding of P to Al and a lowered porewater P. The DIP efflux is therefore expected to be lowered after the initial phase. Al had no effects on the nitrogen fluxes, but the chironomids enhanced the release, and decreased the release or increased the uptake by the sediments.     

Copper, zinc and cadmium in marine cage fish farm sediments: an extensive survey

The diet of cage-farmed Atlantic salmon contains a range of trace metals, some of which have toxic properties, e.g. zinc, copper and cadmium. A survey of metal concentrations (ICP-MS analysis) in surface sediments of ca. 70 stations was carried out in both May and December 2000 around a Scottish fish farm. Additionally, at 13 stations on 2 orthogonal transects centered on the farm, sediments were analysed at 1cm intervals to 8 cm depth. Maximum concentrations in surface sediments were 921, 805 and 3.5 microg g(-1) for Zn, Cu and Cd, respectively, and were found at stations near the fish farm. The calculated losses from the farm (feed input minus fish output) were 87.0%, 4.3% and 14.0% of the background-corrected inventories for Zn, Cu and Cd, respectively, indicating that for Cu and Cd at least, the feed is not the only source.     

An introductory note on the environmental economics of the circular economy

This paper provides an introduction to some of the fundamental principles and approaches in environmental economics which are of significance to achieving an integrated sustainability science. The concept of a circular economy, introduced by the late David Pearce in 1990, addresses the interlinkages of the four economic functions of the environment. The environment not only provides amenity values, in addition to being a resource base and a sink for economic activities, it is also a fundamental life-support system. Environmental economists have suggested that, taking these four functions as an analytical starting point, unpriced or underpriced services should be internalised in the economy. In Europe significant advances have been achieved in the pricing of externalities by means of truly interdisciplinary analysis which accounts in detail for the environmental consequences. The monetary estimates reached as a result of such interdisciplinary research are gradually being applied to the economic analysis of environmental policy priorities. Although such figures provide only a partial and incomplete picture of the environmental costs at stake, they support and inform the analysis of the virtues of a circular economy for individual resources as well as for sustainability as a future trajectory.     

Adaptive management: Promises and pitfalls

Proponents of the scientific adaptive management approach argue that it increases knowledge acquisition rates, enhances information flow among policy actors, and provides opportunities for creating shared understandings. However, evidence from efforts to implement the approach in New Brunswick, British Columbia, Canada, and the Columbia River Basin indicates that these promises have not been met. The data show that scientific adaptive management relies excessively on the use of linear systems models, discounts nonscientific forms of knowledge, and pays inadequate attention to policy processes that promote the development of shared understandings among diverse stakeholders. To be effective, new adaptive management efforts will need to incorporate knowledge from multiple sources, make use of multiple systems models, and support new forms of cooperation among stakeholders.     

Community-Based Monitoring in support of local sustainability

Community-based monitoring (CBM) activities in Canada are increasing. A conceptual framework developed for and used to guide a pilot CBM project in 31 Canadian communities is evaluated. The framework provided the strategic direction necessary for successful implementation of the pilot and proved useful in the training of community coordinators hired for the project. Limitations of the framework include its inadequate attention to community diversity, its linearity, and insufficient expression of the adaptive and synergistic nature of its components. In order to support local sustainability, CBM appears to require an approach that is context-specific, iterative, and adaptive. Given these emergent characteristics, an enhanced conceptual framework for CBM in Canada is developed based on four dynamic themes: community mapping, participation assessment, capacity building, and information delivery.     

ACCURACY OF LAKE AND STREAM TEMPERATURES ESTIMATED FROM THERMAL INFRARED IMAGES1

Emitted thermal infrared radiation (TIR, λ= 8 to 14 μm) can be used to measure surface water temperatures (top approximately 100 μm). This study evaluates the accuracy of stream (50 to 500 m wide) and lake (300 to 5,000 m wide) radiant temperatures (15 to 22°C) derived from airborne (MASTER, 5 to 15 m) and satellite (ASTER 90 m, Landsat ETM+ 60 m) TIR images. Applied atmospheric compensations changed water temperatures by ?0.2 to +2.0°C. Atmospheric compensation depended primarily on atmospheric water vapor and temperature, sensor viewing geometry, and water temperature. Agreement between multiple TIR bands (MASTER ‐ 10 bands, ASTER ‐ 5 bands) provided an independent check on recovered temperatures. Compensations improved agreement between image and in situ surface temperatures (from 2.0 to 1.1°C average deviation); however, compensations did not improve agreement between river image temperatures and loggers installed at the stream bed (from 0.6 to 1.6°C average deviation). Analysis of field temperatures suggests that vertical thermal stratification may have caused a systematic difference between instream gage temperatures and corrected image temperatures. As a result, agreement between image temperatures and instream temperatures did not imply that accurate TIR temperatures were recovered. Based on these analyses, practical accuracies for corrected TIR lake and stream surface temperatures are around 1°C.     

Moving targets: Carbon pricing,energy markets,and social movements in Australia

Reporting on the origins and directions of social movement strategy on climate and energy issues in the last decade, the shifts in ‘climate movement’ practice are discussed using a neo-Polanyian account of the political economy of climate change combined with sociological analysis of the strategic decisions campaigners reported making. Since the mid-2000s, Australia’s climate movement has been engaged in three concurrent arenas of political contestation. The longest-standing arena of movement activity has been negotiations over climate policy. More recently, activists and communities are engaged in a struggle over the expansion of fossil fuels. A third contest has been waged over the present and future position of renewable energy technologies in Australia’s electricity market. In the wake of climate policy failure, energy campaigns have been deepened, and it seems that a broader energy justice agenda is being forged. New strategic dilemmas are visible in the field.