“We can keep the fire burning”: building action competence through environmental justice education in Uganda and Germany

The global dimensions of climate change necessitate a response that takes national differences – social, economic, geographic, and cultural – into account. Action-oriented education has a key role to play in advancing citizen engagement in a culture of sustainability. This paper describes research conducted with one such education programme, Youth Leading Environmental Change (YLEC), which operates in six countries and engages university-aged youth in discussion and practice related to global sustainability, systems thinking, and environmental justice. YLEC aims to advance four key competencies; this paper focuses on the goal of action competence, which involves acquiring knowledge, reflecting on experience in the context of one’s values, envisioning alternative futures, and acting individually and collectively to advance those alternatives. The present article examines the impacts of YLEC on environmental action competence in two of the countries involved in this research: Uganda and Germany. In-depth interviews were conducted with participants in both countries to examine the development of action competence during and after the programme. Findings suggest that outcomes differed in each country, reflective of participants’ different lived experiences. YLEC effectively built on the conditions faced in each country to accompany youth to a higher level of awareness and action. These findings have implications for environmental education programmes striving to work with multiple nations and diverse participants.     

Sources, chemistry, impacts and regulations of complex air pollution: Preface

正Clean air is essential to people's health and that of the environment.Since the industrial revolution,however,the quality of the air that people breathe has deteriorated considerably—mainly as a result of human activities.Rising industrial and energy production,the burning of fossil fuels and the dramatic rise in traffic all contribute to air pollution in our cities which,in turn,can lead to serious health problems for instance     

EVALUATION OF RUNOFF,EROSION, AND PHOSPHORUS MODELING SYSTEM—SIMPLE1

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of Spatially Integrated Models for Phosphorus Loading and Erosion (SIMPLE) in predicting runoff volume, sediment loss, and phosphorus loading from two watersheds. The modeling system was applied to the 334 ha QOD subwatershed, part of the Owl Run watershed, located in Fauquier County, Virginia, and to the 2240 ha watershed, Battle Branch, located in Delaware County, Oklahoma. Simulation runs were conducted at cell and field scales, and simulation results were compared with observed data. Runoff volume and dissolved phosphorus loading were measured at the Battle Branch watershed. Runoff volume, sediment yield, and total phosphorus loading were measured at the QOD site. SIMPLE tended to underestimate runoff volumes during the dormant period, from November to March. The comparison between observed and predicted dissolved phosphorus showed better correlation than for observed and predicted total phosphorus loading. Cell level simulations provided similar estimates of runoff volume and phosphorus loading when compared to field level simulations for both watersheds. However, observed sediment yields better compared with the values predicted from the cell level simulation when compared to field level simulation. Finally, results of model evaluation indicated that SIMPLE's predictive ability is acceptable for screening applications but not for site-specific quantitative predictions.     

Successful full‐scale enhanced anaerobic dechlorination at a NAPL strength 1,1,1‐TCA source area

Bioremediation of 1,1,1‐trichloroethane (TCA) is more challenging than bioremediation of other chlorinated solvents, such as tetrachloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE). TCA transformation often occurs under methanogenic and sulfate‐reducing conditions and is mediated by Dehalobacter. The source area at the project site contains moderately permeable medium sand with a low hydraulic gradient and is approximately 0.5 acre. TCA contamination generally extended to 35 feet, with the highest concentrations at approximately 20 feet. The concentrations then decreased with depth; several wells contained 300 to 600 mg/L of TCA prior to bioremediation. The area of treatment also contained 2 to 30 mg/L of TCE from an upgradient source. Initial site groundwater conditions indicated minimal biotic dechlorination and the presence of up to 20 mg/L of nitrate and 90 mg/L of sulfate. Microcosm testing indicated that TCA dechlorination was inhibited by the site's relatively low pH (5 to 5.5) and high TCA concentration. After the pH was adjusted and TCA concentrations were reduced to less than 35 mg/L (by dilution with site water), dechlorination proceeded rapidly using whey (or slower with sodium lactate) as an electron donor. Throughout the remediation program, increased resistance to TCA inhibition (from 35 to 200 mg/L) was observed as the microbes adapted to the elevated TCA concentrations. The article presents the results of a full‐scale enhanced anaerobic dechlorination recirculation system and the successful efforts to eliminate TCA‐ and pH‐related inhibition. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Facilitating resilient rural-to-urban sustainable agriculture and rural communities

ABSTRACT

This article contributes to efforts to validate a common set of parameters and principles of sustainable agriculture. Comparisons between alternative forms of sustainable agriculture and rural-to-urban community resilience are investigated. Conclusions are drawn between multiple sustainable/alternative agriculture systems and evaluated. A set of common baseline parameters and principles is proposed as a method of evolving a common structural framework for strengthening sustainability of agriculture and rural contexts. Concepts of rural-to-urban community sustainability are proposed, supporting sustainable agriculture contexts as rural and urban. In the twenty-first century, agriculture is becoming more diversified and less typified as a rural occupation. Urban agriculture is expanding as the need for fresh, affordable, accessible agriculture produce increases in urban areas. Evidence supports symbiotic relationships between sustainable agriculture and rural/urban communities, although some claim this relationship has not been clearly defined.

This article investigates sustainable agriculture from two perspectives. We ask ‘what are common parameters and principles of the various forms of sustainable agriculture,’ and ‘why urban-to-rural context.’ Organic agriculture parameters and principles are proposed as a conceptual framework toward establishing baseline parameters and principles for sustainable agriculture. Best management parameters of urban and rural sustainable agriculture in the United States and the United Kingdom are examined for their potential to develop a strengthening framework of parameters and principles of agriculture and rural-to-urban sustainability. These results are compared and evaluated for their effectiveness in redefining current sustainable agriculture practices, and their value in strengthening sustainable agriculture symbiosis with rural-to-urban community systems.     

Inadvertent advocacy

Policy advocacy is an issue regularly debated among conservation scientists. These debates have focused on intentional policy advocacy by scientists, but advocacy can also be unintentional. I define inadvertent policy advocacy as the act of unintentionally expressing personal policy preferences or ethical judgments in a way that is nearly indistinguishable from scientific judgments. A scientist may be well intentioned and intellectually honest but still inadvertently engage in policy advocacy. There are two ways to inadvertently engage in policy advocacy. First, a scientist expresses an opinion that she or he believes is a scientific judgment but it is actually an ethical judgment or personal policy preference. Second, a scientist expresses an opinion that he or she knows is an ethical judgment or personal policy preference but inadvertently fails to effectively communicate the nature of the opinion to policy makers or the public. I illustrate inadvertent advocacy with three examples: recovery criteria in recovery plans for species listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, a scientific peer review of a recovery plan for the Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature's definition of threatened. In each example, scientists expressed ethical judgments or policy preferences, but their value judgments were not identified as such, and, hence, their value judgments were opaque to policy makers and the public. Circumstances suggest their advocacy was inadvertent. I believe conservation scientists must become acutely aware of the line between science and policy and avoid inadvertent policy advocacy because it is professional negligence, erodes trust in scientists and science, and perpetuates an ethical vacuum that undermines the rational political discourse necessary for the evolution of society's values. The principal remedy for inadvertent advocacy is education of conservation scientists in an effort to help them understand how science and values interact to fulfill the mission of conservation science.     

Copepodid and adult Argestidae Por, 1986 (Copepoda: Harpacticoida) in the southeastern Atlantic deep sea: diversity and community structure at the species level

Drawing on the example of Argestidae Por, 1986b, community structure and large-scale distribution patterns of harpacticoid copepods at species level were examined in the three southeastern Atlantic deep-sea basins. The study was based on 30 multicorer deployments at depths from 5,035 to 5,655 m during the DIVA-2 expedition. The 1,176 adult and copepodid Argestidae from CIII onwards belong to 114 species. Some species occurred at all five stations; others appeared to be exclusive for single stations. Inclusion of copepodids revealed a higher similarity in species composition among the five stations than consideration of just adults and caused a slight shift toward dominance of single species in the sediments at most locations.     

Assessing reef fish assemblage structure: how do different stereo-video techniques compare?

Measures of fish abundance, assemblage composition and length were compared when sampled by baited remote underwater stereo-video (stereo BRUV) and diver-operated stereo-video transects (stereo DOV) at the Houtman Abrolhos Islands and Ningaloo Reef. Species richness counts were 40% higher on stereo BRUV than stereo DOV. Stereo BRUVs also recorded a greater number of large-bodied targeted species in higher abundance than stereo DOV (e.g. Lethrinus nebulosus, Plectropomus leopardus) at the Houtman Abrolhos and at Ningaloo Reef. Many non-targeted species were also recorded in greater abundances on stereo BRUV than stereo DOV (e.g. Coris auricularis, Gymnothorax spp). Stereo DOV transects recorded a greater abundance of some small-bodied Pomacentridae, Labridae and Scaridae species than did stereo BRUV, particularly at Ningaloo Reef. This study demonstrates that choice of sampling technique for surveys of reef fish can lead to very different biological interpretations of fish assemblage structure.     

Beyond identity crisis: The challenge of recontextualizing ecosystem delimitation

In a series of papers, three important system ecologists, Bernard C. Patten, Sven E. Jorgensen and Milan Straškraba attempt to revise the old ecosystem field and construct a new systems ecology. Inevitably, their attempt is faced with some of the same problems that led the field to decline. The indefiniteness of ecosystem boundaries is one of them, maybe the most important. Systems’ ecology failure to define ecosystem boundaries was considered a significant obstacle for the conceptualization of the ecosystem as a valid organizing unit of nature and resulted in a disciplinary identity crisis. To surmount this crisis, the authors introduce into the field innovative ideas which have their origin in the so-called postmodern network theories. These ideas reinforce the concept of environment and allow for a relative conception of space, which might have beneficial effects in delimiting ecosystems. However, the problem-solving potential of these ideas is not activated because the authors remain stitched to the Odumian mode of ecosystem thinking and avoid recontextualizing the old building blocks.