Are we counting what counts? A closer look at environmental concern,pro-environmental behaviour,and carbon footprint

Three parallel lines of inquiry regarding individuals' support for the environment have developed within the environmental social sciences. These include individuals' concern for the environment, research on private sphere pro-environmental behaviour (PEB), i.e. household actions seeking to improve the environment (e.g. buying better light bulbs), and more recently, ecological and carbon footprints. Researchers have noted that the correlates of this third form of support for the environment are not necessarily the same as the predictors of the first two forms. Using Canadian survey data, this study examines the relationships among, and predictors of, all three forms. Evidence that there is not a link between private sphere PEB and household carbon footprints, and that measures of socio-economic status (education and income) have different effects on different types of support for the environment, invites a discussion of whether environmental social scientists are really counting what counts.     

Development and Demonstration of a Pilot-Scale Debris Washing System

Metallic, masonry, and other solid debris that may be contaminated with hazardous chemicals litter numerous hazardous waste sites in the United States. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides, lead or other metals are some of the contaminants of concern. In some cases, cleanup standards have been established (e.g., 10 μg PCBs/100 cm² for surfaces to which humans may be frequently exposed). Decontaminated debris could be either returned to the site as “clean” fill or, in the case of metallic debris, sold to a metal smelter.

This project involves the development and demonstration of a technology specifically for per forming on-site decontamination of debris. Both bench-scale and pilot-scale versions of a debris washing system (DWS) have been designed, constructed, and demonstrated. The DWS entails the application of an aqueous solution during a high-pressure spray cycle, followed by turbulent wash and rinse cycles. The aqueous cleaning solution is recovered and reconditioned for reuse concurrently with the debris-cleaning process, which minimizes the quantity of process water required to clean the debris.     

Effective communication about complex environmental issues: Perceived quality of information about carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) depends on stakeholder collaboration

This experimental research addresses the effectiveness of communication about complex environmental issues, depending on whether the same information is provided by multiple collaborating or by individual organizations (i.e., stakeholders). The information provided pertains to carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology, as an example of a complex environmental issue. In Studies 1 (N = 75) and 2 (N = 66) we found that participants perceived factual information from collaborating stakeholders to be of higher quality than when the same information was provided by individual stakeholders. As predicted, the expectation of diverse perspectives being represented in the collaborative information mediated this effect. In addition, in Study 3 (N = 79) the perceived dissimilarity of collaborating stakeholders was shown to be an important precondition for the collaboration effect observed in Studies 1 and 2. Finally, these studies indicate that occasional collaboration between different stakeholders does not necessarily harm the perceived credibility of each individual stakeholder.     

How organizational motives and communications affect public trust in organizations: The case of carbon dioxide capture and storage

Preventing climate change is among the greatest environmental challenges facing the world today. Recently developed carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology is an important strategy to mitigate climate change. Public trust in organizations involved in CCS technology is important for successful implementation of this technology. This work adresses how inferred organizational motives and organizational communications affect public trust in these organizations. Study 1 (N = 264) showed that Dutch citizens generally have less trust in the industrial organizations than in the environmental NGOs involved in CCS. As predicted, inferred organizational motives (organization-serving motives versus public-serving motives) accounted for this difference. In Study 2 (N = 78) and Study 3 (N = 51) we used experimental designs. Both experiments showed that organizations that communicated arguments incongruent with inferred organizational motives instigated less trust than organizations that communicated arguments congruent with inferred organizational motives. Study 3 additionally showed that communicating an incongruent and a congruent argument together diminished the negative effects of the incongruent argument. In both Study 2 and Study 3 the effect of congruency on trust was mediated by perceived honesty of the organizations.     

Dynamics in the global protected-area estate since 2004

Nations of the world have committed to a number of goals and targets to address global environmental challenges. Protected areas have for centuries been a key strategy in conservation and play a major role in addressing current challenges. The most important tool used to track progress on protected-area commitments is the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). Periodic assessments of the world's protected-area estate show steady growth over the last 2 decades. However, the current method, which uses the latest version of the WDPA, does not show the true dynamic nature of protected areas over time and does not provide information on sites removed from the WDPA. In reality, this method can only show growth or remain stable. We used GIS tools in an approach to assess protected-area change over time based on 12 temporally distinct versions of the WDPA that quantify area added and removed from the WDPA annually from 2004 to 2016. Both the narrative of continual growth of protected area and the counter-narrative of protected area removal were overly simplistic. The former because growth was almost entirely in the marine realm and the latter because some areas removed were reprotected in later years. On average 2.5 million km² was added to the WDPA annually and 1.1 million km² was removed. Reasons for the inclusion and removal of protected areas in the WDPA database were in part due to data-quality issues but also to on-the-ground changes. To meet the 17% protected-area component of Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 by 2020, which stood at 14.7% in 2016, either the rate of protected-area removal must decrease or the rate of protected-area designation and addition to the WDPA must increase.     

The affective foundations of high‐reliability organizing

The factors that compel individuals to exert the extraordinary effort needed to create high reliability—consistent error‐free performance under trying conditions—remain unspecified. Here, we propose that when individuals experience emotional ambivalence and prosocial motivation, it induces the broad thinking and other‐orientation that undergird mindful organizing and high reliability. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

肠道微生物群和水生毒理学: 环境健康的新概念

高通量测序技术极大地方便了深度考察不同种群中宿主相关微生物群的组成和功能。研究表明微生物在动物包括人类的健康和疾病发病中扮演着必要的角色。微生物已成为环境毒理学中新兴的重要研究主题。这是因为微生物在免疫系统中起着重要的交互的作用,同时在化学解毒中也有作用。污染物扰动肠道微生物,引起胃肠组织的病理生理变化,导致一系列系统效应,致使营养摄入变差和肠道发炎。本文检索了关于环境污染物对水生物种微生物影响的文献,重点关注了肠道微生物。我们强调了脊柱动物宿主中的一些已知的肠道上皮细胞的主要蛋白,这些均是化合物破坏的靶标,这些蛋白可以与微生物直接对话。我们提出了一个有害结局路径(adverse outcome pathway)的总体框架,将肠道生态失调作为有害效应终点事件的主要贡献因子。我们展示了两个案例研究,分别是(1)纳米材料;(2)碳氢化合物,我们参考了Deepwater Horizon港口的石油泄漏事件, 生态失调在案例中展示了微生物的考察如何改善有害结局的研究。最后,我们提出了一些策略以建立化合物诱导的肠道生态失调与有害结局的关联。我们通过实验建立了特定微生物与肠道生态失调的关联。对毒物与微生物关系的深入研究将成为改善动物及人类健康的重大突破。 精选自Ondrej Adamovsky, Amanda N. Buerger, Alexis M. Wormington, Naomi Ector, Robert J. Griffitt, Joseph H. Bisesi Jr., Christopher J. Martyniuk. The gut microbiome and aquatic toxicology: An emerging concept for environmental health. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry,2018,37:2758-2775.
详情请见 https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.4249