Changes in extreme events and the potential impacts on human health

Extreme weather and climate-related events affect human health by causing death, injury, and illness, as well as having large socioeconomic impacts. Climate change has caused changes in extreme event frequency, intensity, and geographic distribution, and will continue to be a driver for change in the future. Some of these events include heat waves, droughts, wildfires, dust storms, flooding rains, coastal flooding, storm surges, and hurricanes. The pathways connecting extreme events to health outcomes and economic losses can be diverse and complex. The difficulty in predicting these relationships comes from the local societal and environmental factors that affect disease burden. More information is needed about the impacts of climate change on public health and economies to effectively plan for and adapt to climate change. This paper describes some of the ways extreme events are changing and provides examples of the potential impacts on human health and infrastructure. It also identifies key research gaps to be addressed to improve the resilience of public health to extreme events in the future.

Implications: Extreme weather and climate events affect human health by causing death, injury, and illness, as well as having large socioeconomic impacts. Climate change has caused changes in extreme event frequency, intensity, and geographic distribution, and will continue to be a driver for change in the future. Some of these events include heat waves, droughts, wildfires, flooding rains, coastal flooding, surges, and hurricanes. The pathways connecting extreme events to health outcomes and economic losses can be diverse and complex. The difficulty in predicting these relationships comes from the local societal and environmental factors that affect disease burden.     

The influence of individual differences on organizational safety attitudes

Workplace accidents cost organizations and the economy billions of dollars annually, disabling and injuring millions of employees. Employee attitudes toward safety have been shown to relate to safe workplace behavior. In an effort to determine what contributes to stronger employee attitudes toward safety, we examined the relationships between safety attitudes and a wide array of individual differences reflecting preferences and tendencies toward risk and control. Using a sample of 190 engineering and occupational safety students from two universities, we found that agreeableness, conscientiousness, prevention regulatory focus, and fatalism related significantly to all six safety attitudes examined. Regression analyses demonstrated that agreeableness, prevention focus, and fatalism significantly related to safety attitudes when controlling for the other individual differences. This study illustrates the utility of examining individual differences when predicting safety-related attitudes.     

Carbon dioxide capture with concentrated,aqueous piperazine

Concentrated, aqueous piperazine (PZ) has been investigated as a novel amine solvent for carbon dioxide (CO₂) absorption. The CO₂ absorption rate of aqueous PZ is more than double that of 7 m MEA and the amine volatility at 40 °C ranges from 11 to 21 ppm. Thermal degradation is negligible in concentrated, aqueous PZ up to a temperature of 150 °C, a significant advantage over MEA systems. Oxidation of concentrated, aqueous PZ is appreciable in the presence of copper (4 mM), but negligible in the presence of chromium (0.6 mM), nickel (0.25 mM), iron (0.25 mM), and vanadium (0.1 mM). Initial system modeling suggests that 8 m PZ will use 10–20% less energy than 7 m MEA. The fast mass transfer and low degradation rates suggest that concentrated, aqueous PZ has the potential to be a preferred solvent for CO₂ capture.     

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Challenges for Regional Ecosystem Management

An adaptive management approach is necessary but not sufficient to address the long-term challenges of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). Adaptive management, in turn, has its own particular challenges, of which we focus on two: science input, and stakeholder engagement. In order to frame our discussion and subsequent recommendations, we place the current management difficulties into their historical context, with special emphasis on the 1990 Vision document, which attempted a broad synthesis of management goals for the ecosystem. After examining these two key challenges in the context of the GYE, we make several recommendations that would allow for more effective ecosystem management in the long term. First, we recommend adoption of the GYE as a site for long-term science research and monitoring with an emphasis on integrative research, long-term federal funding, and public dissemination of data. Second, we conclude that a clearer prioritization of legislative mandates would allow for more flexible ecosystem management in the GYE, a region where conflicting mandates have historically led to litigation antithetical to effective ecosystem management. Finally, we recommend a renewed attempt at an updated Vision for the Future that engages stakeholders (including local landholders) substantively from the outset.     

Emissions from carpet combustion in a pilot-scale rotary kiln: comparison with coal and particle-board combustion

The use of post-consumer carpet as a potential fuel substitute in cement kilns and other high-temperature processes is being considered to address the problem of huge volumes of carpet waste and the opportunity of waste-to-energy recovery. Carpet represents a high volume waste stream, provides high energy value, and contains other recoverable materials for the production of cement. This research studied the emission characteristics of burning 0.46-kg charges of chopped nylon carpet squares, pulverized coal, and particle-board pellets in a pilot-scale natural gas-fired rotary kiln. Carpet was tested with different amounts of water added. Emissions of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitric oxide (NO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and total hydrocarbons and temperatures were continuously monitored. It was found that carpet burned faster and more completely than coal and particle board, with a rapid volatile release that resulted in large and variable transient emission peaks. NO emissions from carpet combustion ranged from 0.06 to 0.15 g/MJ and were inversely related to CO emissions. Carpet combustion yielded higher NO emissions than coal and particle-board combustion, consistent with its higher nitrogen content. SO2 emissions were highest for coal combustion, consistent with its higher sulfur content than carpet or particle board. Adding water to carpet slowed its burn time and reduced variability in the emission transients, reducing the CO peak but increasing NO emissions. Results of this study indicate that carpet waste can be used as an effective alternative fuel, with the caveats that it might be necessary to wet carpet or chop it finely to avoid excessive transient puff emissions due to its high volatility compared with other solid fuels, and that controlled mixing of combustion air might be used to control NO emissions from nylon carpet.     

Incorporating the perceptual range of animals into connectivity models

The perceptual range of an animal towards different landscape elements affects its movements through heterogeneous landscapes. However, empirical knowledge and modeling tools are lacking to assess the consequences of variation in the perceptual range for movement patterns and connectivity. In this study we tested how changes in the assumed perception of different landscape elements affect the outcomes of a connectivity model. We used an existing individual-based, spatially explicit model for the dispersal of Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx). We systematically altered the perceptual range in which animals recognize forest fragments, water bodies or cities, as well as the probability that they respond to these landscape elements. Overall, increasing the perceptual range of the animals enhanced connectivity substantially, both qualitatively and quantitatively. An enhanced range of attraction to forests had the strongest impact, doubling immigration success; an enhanced range of attraction to rivers had a slightly lower impact; and an enhanced range of avoidance of cities had the lowest impact. Correcting the enhancement in connectivity by the abundance of each of the landscape elements in question reversed the results, indicating the potential sensitivity of connectivity models to rare landscape elements (in our case barriers such as cities). Qualitatively, the enhanced perception resulted in strong changes in movement patterns and connectivity. Furthermore, model results were highly parameter-specific and patch-specific. These results emphasize the need for further empirical research on the perceptual capabilities of different animals in different landscapes and conditions. They further indicate the usefulness of spatially explicit individual-based simulation models for recognizing consistent patterns that emerge, despite uncertainty regarding animals’ movement behavior. Altogether, this study demonstrates the need to extend the concept of ‘perceptual ranges’ beyond patch detection processes, to encompass the wide range of elements that can direct animal movements during dispersal through heterogeneous landscapes.     

A synthesis of convergent reflections,tensions and silences in linking gender and global environmental change research

This synthesis article joins the authors of the special issue “Gender perspectives in resilience, vulnerability and adaptation to global environmental change” in a common reflective dialogue about the main contributions of their papers. In sum, here we reflect on links between gender and feminist approaches to research in adaptation and resilience in global environmental change (GEC). The main theoretical contributions of this special issue are threefold: emphasizing the relevance of power relations in feminist political ecology, bringing the livelihood and intersectionality approaches into GEC, and linking resilience theories and critical feminist research. Empirical insights on key debates in GEC studies are also highlighted from the nine cases analysed, from Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Pacific. Further, the special issue also contributes to broaden the gender approach in adaptation to GEC by incorporating research sites in the Global North alongside sites from the Global South. This paper examines and compares the main approaches adopted (e.g. qualitative or mixed methods) and the methodological challenges that derive from intersectional perspectives. Finally, key messages for policy agendas and further research are drawn from the common reflection.     

Family Forest Landowners’ Interest in Forest Carbon Offset Programs: Focus Group Findings from the Lake States,USA

In 2012, focus groups were organized with individuals owning 20+ acres in the Lake States region of the United States (Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) to discuss various issues related to forest carbon offsetting. Focus group participants consisted of landowners who had responded to an earlier mail-back survey (2010) on forest carbon offsets. Two focus groups were held per state with an average of eight participants each (49 total). While landowner participant types varied, overall convergence was reached on several key issues. In general, discussion results found that the current payment amounts offered for carbon credits are not likely, on their own, to encourage participation in carbon markets. Landowners are most interested in other benefits they can attain through carbon management (e.g., improved stand species mix, wildlife, and trails). Interestingly, landowner perceptions about the condition of their own forest land were most indicative of prospective interest in carbon management. Landowners who felt that their forest was currently in poor condition, or did not meet their forest ownership objectives, were most interested in participating. While the initial survey sought landowner opinions about carbon markets, a majority of focus group participants expressed interest in general carbon management as a means to achieve reduced property taxes.