Environmental justice in Nigeria: A narration of residents’ experience in Ile-Ife

The sharing of environmental cost by residents in various residential areas in the developing world is perceived to be unfair. This study therefore assessed residents’ experiences of environmental justice in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Three residential areas were identified in the study area and samples were selected using systematic sampling. Using availability and condition of urban infrastructure, severity of environmental problems and residents’ involvement in environmental issues, the study examined environmental justice in the study area. The study established a variation in environmental issues across identified residential areas. The severity of environmental problem measured through an index tagged Severity of Environmental Problem (SEPI) revealed that environmental problems was most severe in the core (SEPI = 4.00), followed by the peripheral area (SEPI = 3.71) and least in the transition area (SEPI = 3.56). On the condition of available environmental infrastructure, the study revealed that the conditions of infrastructure were most improved in the peripheral area (ICI = 3.07), followed by the core (ICI = 2.67) and the least in the transition area (ICI = 2.42). The study concluded that residents’ experiences of environmental justice differ significantly across the different residential zones as reflected by residents’ socio-economic characteristics. Furthermore, it established that age, gender, educational status, and number of years spent in the area can be used to explain the differences in residents’ experience of environmental justice in the study area. To enhance the liveability, the study recommends adequate provision of environmental amenities needed by each category of people in the city.     

河北省不同盐渍化土壤类型的微生物多样性与种群结构

为了探索盐渍化土壤中微生物多样性及群落构成，有效筛选盐渍土壤中耐盐微生物菌群.采用高通量测序技术对采集的河北省滨海盐渍土（原生盐渍化）、设施盐渍土（次生盐渍化）和高产粮田（健康土壤）3个生境的耕层土壤样本细菌和真菌多样性、群落结构、网络关系及其影响因子进行测定.结果表明，与大田土壤相比，设施土壤中OM、AP、AK、TS和EC显著升高，滨海盐渍土壤的TS和EC显著升高，其他养分指标则显著降低.细菌α多样性依次为：设施盐渍土>高产粮田>滨海盐渍土，真菌α多样性则为高产粮田显著高于设施盐渍土和滨海盐渍土.在门和属水平上分析盐渍化土壤的菌群结构，细菌群落中绿弯菌门（Chloroflexi）及其菌属和真菌群落中子囊菌门（Ascomycota）及其中有益菌Trichocladium和病原菌Fusarium为盐渍化土壤中的优势微生物类群.土壤EC和TS两个盐分因子是对细菌和真菌菌群分布贡献最大的因子，与绿弯菌门中unclassified_A4b和unclassified_Chloroflexi以及变形菌门中unclassified_α-Proteobacteria等细菌菌属和子囊菌门中Trichocladium、unclassified_Chaetomiaceae、Crassicarpon、Cephaliophora和Sodiomyces等真菌菌属呈显著正相关.研究结果为盐渍化土壤修复所需的微生物资源筛选提供了理论依据.     

Considering science needs to deliver actionable science

Conservation practitioners, natural resource managers, and environmental stewards often seek out scientific contributions to inform decision-making. This body of science only becomes actionable when motivated by decision makers considering alternative courses of action. Many in the science community equate addressing stakeholder science needs with delivering actionable science. However, not all efforts to address science needs deliver actionable science, suggesting that the synonymous use of these two constructs (delivering actionable science and addressing science needs) is not trivial. This can be the case when such needs are conveyed by people who neglect decision makers responsible for articulating a priority management concern and for specifying how the anticipated scientific information will aid the decision-making process. We argue that the actors responsible for articulating these science needs and the process used to identify them are decisive factors in the ability to deliver actionable science, stressing the importance of examining the provenance and the determination of science needs. Guided by a desire to enhance communication and cross-literacy between scientists and decision makers, we identified categories of actors who may inappropriately declare science needs (e.g., applied scientists with and without regulatory affiliation, external influencers, reluctant decision makers, agents in place of decision makers, and boundary organization representatives). We also emphasize the importance of, and general approach to, undertaking needs assessments or gap analyses as a means to identify priority science needs. We conclude that basic stipulations to legitimize actionable science, such as the declaration of decisions of interest that motivate science needs and using a robust process to identify priority information gaps, are not always satisfied and require verification. To alleviate these shortcomings, we formulated practical suggestions for consideration by applied scientists, decision makers, research funding entities, and boundary organizations to help foster conditions that lead to science output being truly actionable.     

Public perception of air pollution sources across Europe

Air pollution is one of the primary concerns of our society for its effect on human health and the environment. Among the policy measures that can be put in place to limit air pollutant emissions, end-of-pipe technologies and/or regulatory instruments may be implemented through legislative acts. Also, equally important are behavioural measures, requiring citizens’ active involvement. The success of any measure to limit pollutant emissions requires the acceptance by the citizens that, in turn, implies a correct perception of the main pollutant emission drivers. We present here the comparison between the public perception of air pollution sources and the real-world situation through a survey carried out in seven European countries and involving 16 101 respondents. Our study shows a dramatic underestimation of the contribution of the agri-food sector to air pollution. This result is common to all respondents in the seven countries examined and only to a small extent depends on gender, age and socio-economic status of the respondents.     

财政分权对环境污染的空间效应

利用2006—2017年我国30个省级行政单位的面板数据,采用空间计量模型对财政分权与环境污染之间的关系进行实证分析,并通过效应分解分别计算出财政收入分权和财政支出分权对环境污染的直接效应、空间溢出效应和总效应。模型估计的结果表明:①财政收入分权与财政支出分权通过直接效应和空间溢出效应两种途径对环境污染产生显著影响,但收入分权与支出分权对环境污染的空间效应具有异质性。②财政收入分权对环境污染具有显著的负向直接效应和负向空间溢出效应,影响系数分别为-5.429和-17.572。提高财政收入分权度不仅有利于减轻本省份环境污染,也对邻近省份的环境污染起到抑制作用。而财政支出分权对环境污染具有显著的负向直接效应和正向的空间溢出效应,影响程度分别为-3.345和1.173。提高财政支出分权虽然有利于减少本省份污染的排放,但在一定程度上引起省际的污染外溢效应,提高邻近省份的污染程度。③从总效应来看,财政收入分权和财政支出分权对环境污染均呈现出显著的负向相关性,影响程度分别为-23.001和-2.172。提高财政分权可降低环境污染水平,有利于环境质量提升。④通过构建不同空间权重矩阵,检验模型的稳健性,结果表明模型估计是稳健可靠的。根据分析结论,可能的启示与建议有:①合理划分中央政府和地方政府之间的财政事权和支出责任,在提高财政支出分权度的同时提高地方政府财政收入分权度,充分发挥地方政府环境治理的积极性和主动性。②继续加大生态环境保护力度,完善绿色经济考核机制,引导地方政府加大对污染治理和环境改善的支出水平及效率。     

Institutional quality,financial development and sustainable economic growth among lower income countries

This article postulates strong endogenous relationships in lower income countries between institutional quality, financial development and sustained economic growth. These associations were investigated using the vector-error correction model (VECM) and Granger causality method for a sample of 79 countries from 2005 to 2022. The findings show that (1) these variables reinforce each other in the short run. (2) In the long run, both institutional quality and financial development can fuel economic growth. (3) The positive effect of institutional quality on economic growth is greater than that of financial development. Policy implications of these findings are that careful attention should be paid to co-development policies to enhance the institutional quality and the financial system in these economies. Policies should also consider economic growth strategies to enable sustainable economic growth rates.     

Animal agency in wildlife conservation and management

Wildlife conservation and management (WCM) practices have been historically drawn from a wide variety of academic fields, yet practitioners have been slow to engage with emerging conversations about animals as complex beings, whose individuality and sociality influence their relationships with humans. We propose an explicit acknowledgement of wild, nonhuman animals as active participants in WCM. We examined 190 studies of WCM interventions and outcomes to highlight 3 common assumptions that underpin many present approaches to WCM: animal behaviors are rigid and homogeneous; wildlife exhibit idealized wild behavior and prefer pristine habitats; and human–wildlife relationships are of marginal or secondary importance relative to nonhuman interactions. We found that these management interventions insufficiently considered animal learning, decision-making, individuality, sociality, and relationships with humans and led to unanticipated detrimental outcomes. To address these shortcomings, we synthesized theoretical advances in animal behavioral sciences, animal geographies, and animal legal theory that may help conservation professionals reconceptualize animals and their relationships with humans. Based on advances in these fields, we constructed the concept of animal agency, which we define as the ability of animals to actively influence conservation and management outcomes through their adaptive, context-specific, and complex behaviors that are predicated on their sentience, individuality, lived experiences, cognition, sociality, and cultures in ways that shape and reshape shared human–wildlife cultures, spaces, and histories. Conservation practices, such as compassionate conservation, convivial conservation, and ecological justice, incorporate facets of animal agency. Animal agency can be incorporated in conservation problem-solving by assessing the ways in which agency contributes to species’ survival and by encouraging more adaptive and collaborative decision-making among human and nonhuman stakeholders.     

Fluoride removal and its impact on oral health in Sri Lanka's dry zone: Discussion and recommendation

Fifty percent of the dry zone areas in Sri Lanka have fluoride levels above 1 ppm. This paper discusses the ground conditions and recommends an appropriate range of fluoride in drinking water which can support preventive practices for improving the oral health of children 8-years old and younger. In efforts to address the Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown etiology (CKDU), water treatment to reduce contaminant level in potable water has been implemented. Such treatment would also remove fluoride and has resulted in potable water with various fluoride levels, depending on concentrations in the raw water. While it is important to reduce fluoride levels, it is important to have appropriate residual levels for prevention of dental caries. It needs, however, to be noted fluoride in excess can cause dental fluorosis. In Sri Lanka's dry zone areas increasing prevalence of dental fluorosis with decreasing prevalence of dental caries has been noted. Consumption of tea and powdered milk could increase total intake of fluoride. Fluoridated toothpaste, when used properly, may, however, result in negligible intake of fluoride. Sri Lanka's hot tropical climate which results in substantial intake of fluids reinforces the need to consider reduction in water fluoride. Consideration of local studies and international standards indicate fluoride levels should be in the range of 0.225–0.500 ppm. In the range of 0.225–0.500 ppm, the prevalence of dental fluorosis and caries was only 14% and 8%, respectively, in an endemic district. When fluoride levels are above 0.500 ppm, the issue of dental fluorosis shall need to be addressed. When levels are below 0.225 ppm, oral health care services shall need to be directed at preventing dental caries.     

Emerging applications of green coconut: A promising lignocellulosic biomass

Waste accumulation is a grave concern and becoming a transboundary challenge for environment. During Covid-19 pandemic, diverse type of waste were collected due to different practices employed in order to fight back the transmission rate of the virus. Covid-19 was proved to be capricious catastrophe of this 20th century and even not completely eradicated from the world. The havoc created by this imperceptible quick witted, pleomorphic deadly virus can't be ignored. Though a number of vaccines have been developed by the scientists but there is a fear of getting this virus again in our life. Medical studies prove that immunity drinks will help to reduce its reoccurrences. Coconut water is widely used among all drinks available globally. Its massive consumption created an incalculable pile of green coconut shells around the different corners of the world. This practice generating enormous problem of space acquisition for the environment. Both the environment and public health will benefit from an evaluation of quantity of coconut waste that is being thrown and its potential to generate value added products. With this context, present article has been planned to study different aspects like, coconut waste generation, its biological properties and environmental hazards associated with its accumulation. Additionally, this review illustrates, green technologies for production of different value added products from coconut waste.     

The deflectors influence on flow complexity,bed morphology,sediment transport and water quality of urban lotic waters - A laboratory study

In this laboratory study different combinations of bed (sand, pebble gravel [gravel], and a mix of sand and gravel) and flow (typical and overtopping) were experimented with to investigate the impact of porous deflectors in flow diversity, water quality, and fish performance in prismatic open channels. Deflectors changed the gradually varied flow to a rapidly varied flow, as a sudden change in the water depth was observed at the deflectors, and this change was large for smooth beds. With the presence of gravel, the scouring near the downstream deflector was almost twice that of the sand bed, and with the scouring at its own upstream deflector, irrespective of whether the flow was typical or overtopping. This behavior was a result of sand mobilization due to shear stress and sand mobilization aided gravel transport. The mixed bed showed less gravel movement compared to the gravel-only bed. The percentage of sediment washed out was minor for all bed scenarios, indicating that sediment transport was local. Relative to the sand bed without deflectors (representing a typical urban canal), deflectors resulted in reduced and improved water quality (in terms of sediment load) for sand, and mixed bed, respectively. The fishes found refuge and were comfortable in the pool areas created by deflectors unlike in channels without deflectors where they showed exhaustion.