Major factors contributing to environmental awareness among people in a third world country/Jordan

The objective of this research was to evaluate the major factors contributing to environmental awareness among people in a third world country such as Jordan. Two thousand individuals from different locations in the southern part of Jordan participated in the survey and completed the questionnaire in the fall of 2004. The questionnaire consisted of 30 questions grouped into the following categories of major environmental issues: general environmental problems, air pollution, water resources, solid waste, noise pollution, and desertification. The target population encompassed people with different backgrounds including gender, age, education levels, location of residency, and social status. The questionnaire was distributed according to the population density throughout five major cities and 59 villages. Analysis of Variance was conducted on the means of the sample populations determined by gender, age, education, and geographic distribution to verify that the apparent differences of the means were statistically significant. The environmental awareness of females in this study as quantified by an overall index exceeded that of males in each of the individual cities and villages surveyed and therefore throughout the region. For the entire study, the overall index was 65.3–62.8, respectively. The statistical results of the survey revealed that the city of Aqaba in the southern region of Jordan had greater environmental awareness than the other cities surveyed. Environmental awareness among university students increased linearly as they proceeded from the first year to the fifth year. The education level of the survey respondents played a significant role in the degree of environmental awareness in all cities and villages surveyed. Environmental awareness was also affected by the difference in age range, with the older groups having more consistent responses and higher overall index of environmental awareness.     

Sources and environmental behavior of dechlorane plus--a review

Intensive research has been carried out in the past few years on the occurrence and behavior of dechlorane plus (DP) in the environment, biota and humans. This review summarizes the information and research results generated since DP was first identified in the environment in 2006. We describe the reported measurement methods for DP and provide an integrated picture of its occurrence and behavior as an environmental contaminant. DP in ambient air and sediments is characterized by strong source related concentration elevations and temporal trends reflecting commercial use. Long-range atmospheric transportation of DP has been observed in remote regions, indicating a global presence of DP. Levels of DP in biota and in humans further reinforce its source related distribution. The change in DP isomer ratio in various environmental matrices from commercial products indicates that the behavior of the two isomers is not the same in the environment or in biota. With only limited data available so far, the biomagnification of DP in aquatic biota has not been conclusively demonstrated. This review also looks at reported dechlorination products of DP that might be of interest in future research.     

非政府组织对区域环境规制水平影响研究

非政府组织是公民社会建设的基本推动力量,由于组织目标公益性,非政府组织相对政府先天具有道义优势,但现有研究少有对其公益目标实现的定量研究。生态与环境保护是非政府组织的传统优势领域,该文在国内首次对非政府组织的区域环境规制水平影响开展了定量研究。利用系统广义矩模型和空间计量模型,基于网络数据搜集、整理形成的分地区非政府组织数据库,对2002-2013年我国省际层面非政府组织组织数量对区域环境规制水平的影响进行了实证检验。研究证实:在省际之间,区域环境规制强度存在显著的空间正相关性,表现为相邻省份同高或同低;在省份内部,环境规制强度存在显著的时间惯性。还定量证实非政府组织可以有效改善区域的环境规制水平,非政府组织组织数量1%的增长在1%统计显著水平可以提升0.5%的环境规制强度。控制变量方面,以财政分权度衡量的地方政府经济发展意愿会显著降低区域环境规制水平;以进出口总额占地区生产总值比重衡量的区域开放度则会显著提升区域环境规制水平,"污染天堂"假说在中国缺乏事实依据,参与国际贸易会显著降低中国的环境污染;单位产出能耗会显著降低区域环境规制水平,且弹性系数大于2。该研究结论是稳健的,不同定义关键变量的回归结果方向一致。该研究从经验上证实非政府组织的发育确实推动了区域环境规制的进步。     

邻避型PPP项目的运营模式与居民环境行为研究

运营模式的科学设计以及居民环境行为的有效管理是邻避型PPP项目能否成功的关键。针对邻避项目存在的低收益和居民环境行为转变难两大问题,本文基于计算实验理论与方法构建邻避型PPP项目的运营模式与居民环境行为模型。通过对利益相关主体的社会属性与行为变化规律分析,进而设计运营商、政府、居民和从业人员等主体的计算实验交互规则。模型与计算实验研究了邻避型PPP项目的运营状态和居民环境行为在自负盈亏与统一价格、最小收益保证与统一价格、固定收益率与统一价格、自负盈亏与阶梯价格、最小收益保证与阶梯价格、最小收益保证与阶梯价格以及固定收益率与阶梯价格等六种情景下的演变规律。研究发现:(1)阶梯价格能在短期内改善邻避型PPP项目的运营状况,统一价格机制更有利于项目长远发展。(2)自负盈亏并不是邻避型PPP项目的一个理想方案,收益担保是一个相对稳妥可行的选择,而固定收益率是一个对政府财政有高要求的优化模式,可优化居民环境行为并降低PPP项目的邻避效应。(3)自负盈亏模式下运营商无心开展环境教育和提高从业人员待遇,固定收益率模式有利于推行环境教育并提高从业人员待遇。(4)邻避型PPP项目的环境投入-环境意愿-环境行为之间存在时滞效应。这意味着,较难通过收益模式与价格机制的调整实现系统的最优化,市场的力量无法协调邻避型PPP项目目前存在的矛盾与冲突,需要政府统一管理价格并保证社会资本的回报。同时,改善居民环境行为和管理邻避项目是一个复杂系统工程,需要有系统的筹划与长期时间的积累。     

Knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of secondary school students on renewable feedstocks/biomass: the case of Greece

Green Chemistry is a new approach of chemistry that aims to satisfy the global concerns and demand for sustainability. Green Chemistry is guided by twelve very specific principles of chemical practice. Among them, the seventh one promotes the use of renewable raw materials and feedstock, such as biomass. The widespread application of Green Chemistry principles in everyday life can be achieved by incorporating its paradigm into simple experiments and activities at regular school courses. Thus, an exploration of the students?? background is required. The aim of this study is to provide baseline data on Greek student??s knowledge, beliefs and attitudes related to the seventh Green Chemistry principle namely the use of renewable feedstocks, in order to facilitate introduction of appropriate provision in the school curricula and practice in Greece. Our results indicate that there is a serious knowledge gap among secondary school students regarding the main biomass formation mechanism and the connection of biomass to the global food supply in addition to the almost complete lack of knowledge of the main Green Chemistry principles. Regarding their attitudes, students are positive towards the use of biomass and express a very strong will to be environmentally informed. A logical conclusion of our research is that the development of relevant material that will focus on the application of Green Chemistry principles in everyday life in combination with a training of a core group of educators could be considered as the first steps towards the introduction of Green Chemistry principles in the secondary education system of Greece.     

Changes of public environmental awareness in response to the Taihu blue-green algae bloom incident in China

Environmental problems are becoming increasingly severe in China with industrial discharges and household sewages being the main sources of water pollution in the country. For example, in the case of Taihu Lake, more than half of the total phosphorus in the lake comes from household sewage. While industrial pollution can be treated through technology innovation and controlled by environmental regulations and laws, decreasing household sewage relies entirely on residents. Raising public environmental awareness therefore is essential for ensuring effective environmental improvement and protection. A quantitative assessment of public awareness can inform policy and decision makers; however, not many such studies have been conducted. Changes in the awareness levels in response to a major environmental pollution incident are of particular interest because of the people’s first-hand experience of the triggered consequences. The present paper establishes a system of indicators for the assessment of public environmental awareness. Combined with a fuzzy matter-element analysis method, a model is set-up to quantitatively assess the public environmental awareness. The model is then applied to assess the environmental awareness of the residents of Wuxi City after its major lake Taihu suffered a severe algae bloom in 2007. This study examines whether this serious environmental incident affected people’s environmental awareness and to what degree. The findings show that the matter-element model is capable to resolve well the fuzziness of the ranking affiliation and classification of subjective perceptions, such as public environmental awareness. They show that this environmental incident has had significant positive impacts on the environmental awareness of Wuxi residents. The paper concludes with recommendations related to raising public environmental awareness.     

城镇化对进城农民环保行为影响研究

改革开放以来,伴随中国经济的迅速增长和工业化进程提速,我国城镇化速度明显加快,之前较多的研究关注了城镇化对于我国资源和环境的压力,而较少有研究者从城镇化影响进城人口环保行为的微观视角来探讨城镇化对于降低环境压力的正向效应。采用中国社会综合调查2013年数据,本研究通过比较进城农民和留守农民环保行为的差异验证了城镇化对进城农民环保行为的影响,考虑到由选择性误差引起的内生性问题,本研究采用倾向值匹配的方法对内生性问题进行了修正,结果支持城镇化对进城农民环保行为的改善效应。另外,本研究发现进城农民和留守农民在私人领域的环保行为参与程度差距较大,而在公共领域环保行为参与程度差距较小。最后本研究提出了两个城镇化影响进城农民环保行为的中间机制并进行了初步验证:一是农村户籍居民进城后通过媒体接触,与城市居民互动获得更多环境知识进而改善自身环保行为,二是农民通过改善了环境关注水平,环境重要性认知等环境态度进而改善自身环保行为。本研究认为城镇化对于进城农民环保行为的正向影响对于降低城市环境压力有着积极的作用,因此公共决策部门应继续利用城市载体对规模人群的辐射效应,并不断通过政府引导、媒体宣传和社会参与来提升公众环保意识,营造出全民保护环境的城市社会环境进而不断改善公众环保行为。另外,针对进城农民在公共领域环保行为参与率较低的现状,城市政府既要不断提升进城农民的城市融入水平以改善进城农民对融入城市的环境关心水平,也应不断健全公共领域环保行为的参与机制以保障其参与渠道畅通。     

新型城镇化进程中地方政府环境治理行为研究

环境污染已经成为困扰中国城市可持续发展和新型城镇化建设的重要问题。在新型城镇化的进程中,地方政府的治理策略面临着从以经济增长为中心向经济增长与环境治理并重的转型困境。在这一转型背景下,本文认为,地方政府的环境治理行为主要包含三个方面的内容:地方政府自身的环境治理行为、地方政府与地方政府之间的协作治理行为、地方政府与民众的环境协作治理行为。每一种地方政府环境治理行为都会受到不同因素的激励或制约。本文通过对官员晋升锦标赛、短任期制与官吏分途的分析,环境治理合作的群集型网络和松散型网络的探讨,以及对邻避抗争与公民参与的分析,提出地方政府自身环境治理行为的选择受到地方官员的晋升锦标赛、短任期制与官吏分途的影响;地方政府间的环境协作治理行为受到彼此权衡合作风险与收益结果的制约;地方政府与民众的环境协作治理行为受到地方政府与民众环境风险信息沟通情况和协商缓解机制建立与否等因素的影响。基于此,本文提出需要在构建与地方官员治理动机相兼容的激励机制、地方政府间高度集群型协作契约的签订与执行,以及民众对地方环保政策的参与机制和邻避冲突的缓解机制等方面进行改革,从而更有效地推进地方政府的环境治理。     

城市自然景区游客环境责任行为影响因素研究

城市自然景区是城市中不可多得的旅游资源和游憩空间,游客旅游行为对城市自然景区的游憩冲击一直是城市旅游管理亟待解决的棘手问题,研究游客的环境责任行为是控制游憩负面冲击,增强城市自然景区可持续发展能力的有效途径。本研究在国内外文献综述和实践观察基础上,将游客社会责任意识引入游客环境冲击感知和环境责任行为的关系研究中,建立了包含生态环境冲击感知、不友善行为感知、游客冲突感知和设施管理冲击感知四个游憩冲击感知变量,自我约束行为和保护促进行为两个环境责任行为变量的"游憩冲击感知—社会责任意识—环境责任行为"理论模型,应用问卷调查和结构方程模型,以长沙岳麓山国家5A级景区为案例,对城市自然景区游客环境责任行为的影响因素及其相互关系展开定量实证研究。研究发现:(1)游客游憩冲击感知对环境责任行为的直接影响作用较小,生态环境冲击感知对环境保护促进行为具有显著正向影响;(2)游客社会责任意识对环境自我约束行为具有显著正向影响,其在游客环境冲击感知、设施管理冲击感知、游客冲突感知与环境责任行为的影响关系中起中介作用;(3)游客冲击感知对社会责任意识的影响主要表现为游客生态环境冲击感知和设施管理冲击感知对游客社会责任意识具有显著的正向影响,而游客冲突感知对游客社会责任意识具有显著的负向影响。根据研究结论,文章最后指出城市自然景区游客环境责任行为若干管理启示。     

Effects of environmental factors on low-molecular-weight peptides of fishes: a review

The present state of knowledge of the influence of heavy metals and some other environmental factors on fish metallothioneins, low-molecular-weight tissue polypeptides, is considered. The ecological-biochemical role of these polypeptides and their involvement in the development of adaptive responses of organs to heavy metal accumulation are demonstrated.Translated from Ekologiya, No. 1, 2005, pp. 48–54.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Smirnov, Sukhovskaya, Nemova.     

Farmers’ awareness of environmental protection and rural residential environment improvement: a case study of Sichuan province,China

Environment, Development and Sustainability - While most studies focus on the impact characteristics of farmers and family economic traits have on participation in rural environmental improvement,...     

The impact of energy awareness on energy efficiency

The increasing levels of global warming, depleting sources of fossil fuels and increasing energy costs are all having a large detrimental effect on today's society. Many efforts are being made to try and increase energy efficiency all over the world. One of the major problems is unnecessary and excessive energy utilisation. This problem has been identified by Loughborough University and they are making efforts to try and reduce energy wastage. One of their strategies, used up until recently, involved increasing energy awareness within students in halls of residence by means of a reward system called the Residential Halls Energy Efficiency League (Imago Services, Loughborough Students Union, Estates Services 2006). This scheme managed to reduce energy consumption by up to 10%, saving an estimated £9000 in only 52 days. Can those results be improved by targeting students more specifically? How much energy can be saved by increasing energy awareness?     

Environmental self-efficacy, attitude and behavior among small scale farmers in Zambia

The rural livelihood system in Zambia is essentially agriculture, and agriculture is the main link between people and their environment. Through agricultural activities, people seek to husband the available soil, water and biological resources so as to ‘harvest’ a livelihood for themselves. The aim of this study is to examine Zambian farmers’ awareness and attitude toward the degradation of the environment and their relationships with a set of beliefs to evaluate their perceived capacity to take actions to improve the environment. Results of the study revealed that perception of the severity of environmental degradation had a positive influence on both awareness of and attitude toward land degradation (β = 0.47; p < .001). Perception of susceptibility and benefits significantly influence farmers’ attitude toward environmental degradation (β = 0.51; p < .001). Awareness of environmental degradation is a significant precursor of environmental self-efficacy and behavior (β = 0.38; p < .001). Increasing severity of environmental degradation tends to promote a positive attitude of Zambian farmers toward the environment (β = 0.27; p < .001). Greater awareness of environmental degradation enhances farmers’ capacity in making decisions to improve the situation. Greater environmental awareness leads to greater involvement in land management programs. Greater awareness of the degradation of the environment leads to a more positive environmental behavior. The more individuals are aware of the existence of the degradation of the environment and of its consequences, the more likely they are to do something about it in order to ameliorate the situation (β = 0.36; p < .001). Farmers’ environmental self-efficacy also plays a significant role in their decision to change their behavior. Greater perception of one’s capability to improve the environment is significantly associated with a more positive environmental behavior (β = .39; p < .001).     

The potential conflict between traditional perceptions and environmental behavior: compost use by Muslim farmers

Although traditional societies often have a deep understanding of ecological relationships, traditional or religious values might be in conflict with current environmental values. According to Islamic Law, some compost sources used for agricultural purposes are impure, especially human and pig excreta. This study examined how Muslim farmers perceive the issue of impurity of compost sources and the extent to which the conflict between traditional and modern values affects compost use. Questionnaires were distributed to 77 Muslim and 11 Christian farmers in Israel, examining their personal characteristics, attitudes toward compost use, awareness of its sources and advantages, and the influence of traditional perceptions on the tendency to use compost. Interviews were conducted with agricultural consultants and Muslim clergy. Although the use of compost was limited, a higher level of awareness was found among the younger and/or more educated Muslim farmers. Varied attitudes were expressed regarding the degree of purity/impurity; 52 % of the respondents expressed willingness to use compost if derived from pure materials. The agricultural consultants were acquainted with Muslim farmers who recoiled from the use of compost. The Muslim religious leaders stated that impure substances can be purified through biochemical reactions during the composting process and noted that the use of compost is preferable if chemical fertilizers are harmful to the environment. Although Muslim farmers expressed willingness to use compost if it was proved to be pure according to Islam, this paper addresses how, in practical terms, universal environmental policies may give rise to value conflicts in traditional communities.     

声誉诉求对农户亲环境行为的影响研究——以家禽养殖户污染物处理方式选择为例

面临严峻的农村面源污染形势,政府现行的"自上而下"的治理模式无法实现有效监督。构建自主治理制度,激励农户践行亲环境行为,将成为未来解决农村环境问题的路径选择之一。如何有效规范农户污染处理行为,成为目前亟待解决的问题。文章基于声誉理论构建理论分析模型,从微观层面分析了在农村"熟人社会"场域下,农户声誉诉求对其亲环境行为的影响机制。以农户家禽养殖污染处理行为为例,利用全国8个省330户家禽养殖户的调查数据,通过4个指标测度了农户社会声誉诉求的强弱,并通过主成分分析和加权平均方法分别构建了农户声誉诉求的综合指数。在此基础上,应用Probit计量经济模型,实证检验了声誉诉求对养殖户污染物废弃行为存在抑制作用的假说,并比较了现行政府规制措施的实施效果。实证研究结果表明:1农户声誉诉求对其亲环境行为存在显著的促进作用;2政府引导对养殖户污染物废弃的抑制作用显著,而政府管制措施却未表现出显著影响。基于此,本文得出如下结论:第一,个人对声誉关注程度越高,违反社会准则的成本就越高,个人就有越强的动机遵守社会规范、自我约束污染物废弃行为。"熟人社会"的农村社区中存在较强的社会规制作用和社区成员参与公共环境自觉维护的激励机制。第二,在强制性环境管制难以有效实现的农村环境下,政府通过引导和宣传诱致农户自觉践行亲环境行为,构建环境自我监督机制,或可成为农村环境治理的有效途径。强化社区成员声誉效用和社会责任意识可成为乡村环境治理相关法律和公共管理制度建设的重要补充。     

Understanding the pro-environmental behavior among green poultry farmers: Application of behavioral theories

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Despite widespread economic growth and increasing quality of life in the last century, there are concerns that human activities have had a significant...     

Effects of environmental factors on the seasonally change of phytoplankton populations in a closed freshwater pond.

The effect of environmental factors affecting the population dynamic of phytoplankton population was studied seasonally in a closed freshwater pond with the natural water of Lake Kasumigaura, Japan. The predominant phytoplankton species in the pond were classified as Oscillatoria tenuis, Synedra ulna, Chlamydomonas cingulata and Cyclotella kutzingiana, with dominant species of Melosira italica, Synechococcus sp. and Cryptomonas ovata. The most important limiting factor for filament length and cell size of most of the phytoplankton community was temperature. Availability of most nutrients had profound effects on the phytoplankton growth as nonlimiting factors. Based on our results, it is suggested that cell cycle progression was also temporally regulated by a multiplicity of external factors such as temperature, nutrients, dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH. At high pH and high temperature, consistent increase of cell division of some phytoplanketers such as Synedra, Cyclotella, Chlamydomonas and Melosira occurs, and there also may be species-specific responses for other species of phytoplankters. In addition, the cell divisions of phytoplankters are differentially regulated in different phytoplankton species.