Ryder’s Painism and His Criticism of Utilitarianism

As a member of the British Oxford Group, psychologist Richard Ryder marked the beginning of the modern animal rights and animal welfare movement in the seventies. By introducing the concept “speciesism.” Ryder contributed importantly to the expansion of this movement. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to Ryder’s moral theory, “painism”, that aims to resolve the conflict between the two predominant rival theories in animal ethics, the deontological of Tom Regan and the utilitarian of Peter Singer. First, this paper examines the kernel and historical sources of Ryder’s painist theory, linking it to the work of John Rawls and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Second, it examines Ryder’s critique of utilitarianism. It is argued that his critique of Singer’s use of the word “sentience” is unconvincing and that his critique of utilitarian aggregation as not taking a full account of the metaphysical separateness of persons, has already been countered and dealt with. Finally this paper looks at some of the counterintuitive implications of Ryder’s theory and argues that utilitarianism might have more resources for dealing with its own alleged counterintuitive implications than Ryder acknowledges.     

Modelling spatial distribution of the Croatian marine benthic habitats

Within the framework of the 3-year project “Mapping the habitats of the Republic of Croatia” the marine benthic habitats of the entire Croatian maritory were mapped. The supralittoral and the mediolittoral were mapped as a function of the coastal lithology and the presumed levels of human impact (both in scale of 1:100,000). The infralittoral was mapped on the basis of spatial modelling (using neural networks as a modelling tool, data about habitats collected by fieldwork as the independent variable for training and testing the model, and the digital bathymetrical model, the distance from coast, the second spectral channel of Landsat ETM+ satellite image and the sea bottom sea temperature, salinity and current magnitude, as dependent variables). The circalittoral and the bathyal were mapped by overlapping and reinterpretation of the existing spatial databases (bathymetry and lithology) within the framework of the raster-GIS.     

Trends in seasonal precipitation and temperature in Slovenia during 1951–2007

A quality-controlled and enhanced database of 38 temperature and 52 precipitation stations was developed for Slovenia, a transitional area between Mediterranean, Alpine and continental climatic regimes, covering the period 1951–2007. Mean annual temperatures significantly increased in nearly all of Slovenia (except western areas) at rates between 0.15 and 0.36 °C/decade. Warming was most intense strongest in summer and spring in north-eastern Slovenia (0.3–0.4 °C/decade) and weakest in autumn. Precipitation trends were heterogeneous. Annual precipitation decreased significantly in the north-western part, at 3–6 % per decade. During spring and summer, decrease in rainfall by 3–6 % was detected in western Slovenia. No significant trends were found for the autumn season. In winter, precipitation decreased, by 3–12 % per decade, in particular in north-western Slovenia. As observed also elsewhere in Central Europe, changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns may have contributed to the observed long-term warming and drying in Slovenia. However, the strong warming in summer and spring, that is almost twice the trend observed in neighbouring countries, could be enhanced by drier soils caused by the decrease in winter precipitation in Slovenia.     

Nanoremediation and International Environmental Restoration Markets

Nanoscale zero‐valent iron (nZVI) is the most commonly used nanoremediation material. While there has been a reasonable level of application of nZVI technologies for in situ remediation in the United States, its utilization across Europe has been much more limited. There has been significant uncertainty about the balance between deployment risks and benefits for nanoparticles (NPs), which has affected the regulatory position in several countries. Some member states of the European Union (EU) take a strong precautionary view of the risks from the deployment of NPs into the subsurface, preventing the adoption of the technology. This article provides a risk–benefit assessment for nZVI based on published information and describes the steps that will be taken by a major European research project (NanoRem), as part of its work to provide a basis for better informed decision making in European environmental restoration markets. A key part of this process is dialogue between practitioners and researchers. NanoRem therefore has an active process of communication with different stakeholder networks (regulators, service providers, and site owners). NanoRem hopes to stimulate a consensus on appropriate use of nanoremediation and thereby stimulate effective technology transfer to the European remediation market. ©2015 The Authors     

RO/NF membrane treatment of veterinary pharmaceutical wastewater: comparison of results obtained on a laboratory and a pilot scale

Background  

Emerging contaminants (ECs) are commonly derived from industrial wastewater, which is often a consequence of an inadequate treatment of the latter. Improperly pretreated pharmaceutical wastewater could cause difficulties in operations of wastewater treatment plants while incomplete elimination of ECs during the processing might result in their appearance in drinking water.     

Comparative toxicity of imidacloprid, of its commercial liquid formulation and of diazinon to a non-target arthropod, the microcrustacean Daphnia magna

Imidacloprid (IMI) is at the moment the insecticide with the world's fastest growing sales and is considered possible replacement for the widely used organophosphorus pesticide, diazinon, which is subject to phased revocation in many countries. In this study, biochemical, reproductive and survival parameters of the water flea (Daphnia magna) after chronic exposure to IMI, its commercial liquid formulation Confidor SL 200 and diazinon are presented and compared. According to the lowest observed effect concentrations, diazinon is more toxic to the reproduction of D. magna than IMI and Confidor SL 200, which exert similar toxicity. The same was observed for the survival, except that Confidor SL 200 is more toxic than IMI. In polluted aquatic environments, the actual levels of diazinon are potentially chronically hazardous to the reproduction of D. magna (risk quotient >1). According to very few measured environmental levels of IMI, the latter is not expected to be chronically hazardous, unless it is accidentally spilled in a small pond. In such case, the predicted concentrations of IMI would present a potential chronic risk to D. magna, and a potential acute risk to other aquatic invertebrates. In the future, higher environmental levels of IMI are expected due to its increasing use and physico-chemical properties. The literature survey summarized in this work suggests that further ecotoxicological studies with a broader spectrum of aquatic organisms are needed before IMI is classified as safer than currently applied pesticides.     

Spatial and Seasonal Variations in Chlorophyll-Nutrient Relationships in The Shallow Hypertrophic Lake Manyas, Turkey

Regression and correlation analyses were used to predict responses of phytoplankton biomass (chlorophyll) (μg L⁻¹) to nitrate (NO₃) (mg L⁻¹), phosphate (PO₄) (mg L⁻¹) and ammonium (NH₄) (mg L⁻¹) dynamics in the shallow hypertrophic Lake Manyas, Turkey. Nutrient concentrations showed a descending gradient with distance, while chlorophyll concentrations showed an ascending gradient with the distance from the Sığırcı Inlet to the Karadere Outlet. Higher nutrient concentrations did always not coincide with higher chlorophyll concentrations. The results showed that regression models developed using seasonal data were more accurate in predicting chlorophyll concentrations than those developed using the pooled data from whole year (based on R ² and the difference between the measured and predicted values). The findings also revealed that within a single large shallow lake, chlorophyll-nutrient relationships might show significant variations spatially. The objective of this study was to determine the seasonal and spatial variations in the relationships between chlorophyll, nitrate, phosphate and ammonium in the shallow hypertrophic Lake Manyas, Turkey.     

POCIS sampling in combination with ELISA: screening of sulfonamide residues in surface and waste waters

Sulfonamide antibiotics coming from both human and veterinary medicine are among the most common emerging pollutants in freshwater. The present paper shows the successful application of passive sampling using POCIS in combination with an immunochemical ELISA technique and HPLC/MS/MS analysis to study the distribution of sulfonamides in streams around small towns in the Czech Republic, as well as around a major agglomeration of the city of Brno, including its waste water treatment plant (WWTP). Results indicated the presence of sulfonamides at most studied sites with concentrations ranging from <20 up to 736 ng of sulfamethoxazole equivalents per POCIS. Very high levels were detected in both the influent and effluent of the Brno WWTP with maxima > 8000 ng SMX per POCIS. All samplers collected down-stream of the studied towns and WWTPs clearly showed an increase in sulfonamide drug residues. Higher concentrations were determined in rivers at the city of Brno agglomeration. In agreement with other available studies, these findings indicate low efficiency of conventional WWTPs to eliminate polar pharmaceuticals such as sulfonamides. Good performance and correlation with the LC/MS results, as well as ease of use, indicate good potential for the immunochemical ELISA technique to become the screening tool for sulfonamide determination in surface waters including passive samplers.