A detailed look at the three disciplines,environmental ethics,law and education to determine which plays the most critical role in environmental enhancement and protection

Campaigns to mitigate environmental degradation problems have failed in recent years due to not only the inability to identify the actual causes of the problems but also the approach followed in addressing these problems. This study gives a detailed consideration to the roles played by environmental education, ethics and law in environmental enhancement and protection with the aim of identifying the one that has made the most progress toward reducing the impact of environmental problems. Knowledge of this is necessary as it will help determine the starting point of any environmental sustainability campaign and direct efforts toward this. The findings of this study show that the importance of the three disciplines in environmental enhancement and protection cannot be over-looked, and it identifies environmental ethics as both an interconnector of the other two disciplines and the force that propels them into action.     

The distribution of Cs, K, Rb and Cs in plants in a Sphagnum-dominated peatland in eastern central Sweden

We record the distribution of ¹³⁷Cs, K, Rb and Cs within individual Sphagnum plants (down to 20 cm depth) as well as ¹³⁷Cs in vascular plants growing on a peatland in eastern central Sweden. In Calluna vulgaris¹³⁷Cs was mainly located within the green parts, whereas Andromeda polifolia, Eriophorum vaginatum and Vaccinium oxycoccos showed higher ¹³⁷Cs activity in roots. Carex rostrata and Menyanthes trifoliata showed variable distribution of ¹³⁷Cs within the plants. The patterns of ¹³⁷Cs activity concentration distribution as well as K, Rb and Cs concentrations within individual Sphagnum plants were rather similar and were usually highest in the capitula and/or in the subapical segments and lowest in the lower dead segments, which suggests continuous relocation of those elements to the actively growing apical part. The ¹³⁷Cs and K showed relatively weak correlations, especially in capitula and living green segments (0-10 cm) of the plant (r = 0.50). The strongest correlations were revealed between ¹³⁷Cs and Rb (r = 0.89), and between ¹³⁷Cs and stable Cs (r = 0.84). This suggests similarities between ¹³⁷Cs and Rb in uptake and relocation within the Sphagnum, but that ¹³⁷Cs differs from K.     

Food security and ecological footprint of coastal zone of Bangladesh

This paper presents the present status of food security and ecological footprint, an indicator of environmental sustainability of the coastal zones of Bangladesh. To estimate the present status of the food security and ecological footprint of the coastal zone of Bangladesh, primary and secondary data were collected, and the present status of food security and environmental degradation (in terms of ecological footprint) were calculated. To estimate the household food security, primary data were also collected from all the households in a representative selected village. A quantitative method for computation of food security in grain equivalent based on economic returns (price) is developed, and a method of measuring sustainable development in terms of ecological footprint developed by Wackernagel is used to estimate the environmental sustainability (Wackernagel and Rees in Our ecological footprint: reducing human impact on the earth. New Society, Gabrioala, BC, 1996; Chambers et al. in Sharing nature’s interest-ecological footprint as an indicator of sustainability. Earthscan, London, 2000). Overall status of food security at upazila levels is good for all the upazilas except Shoronkhola, Shyamnager and Morrelgonj, and the best is the Kalapara upazila. But the status of food security at household levels is poor. Environmental status in the coastal zones is poor for all the upazilas except Kalapara and Galachipa. The worst is in the Mongla upazila. Environmental status has degraded mainly due to shrimp culture. This study suggests that control measures are needed for affected upazilas and any further expansion of the shrimp aquaculture to enhance the food security must take into account the environmental aspects of the locality under consideration.     

Determination of the utility of groundwater with respect to the geochemical parameters: a case study from Tuticorin District of Tamil Nadu (India)

In modern living, rapid development has created an increase in demand for groundwater. An endeavor has been made to understand the hydrogeochemical parameters to determine the utility of groundwater. This situation is severe in coastal hard rock aquifers due to the influence of salinity ingression and other anthropogenic influence. A total of 135 groundwater samples were collected from the coastal aquifer of the Tuticorin district and analyzed for major cations and anions during premonsoon (PRM) and postmonsoon (POM). The ions analyzed were used to determine the drinking, agricultural and domestic utility of groundwater. The electrical conductivity (EC) contour shows that the groundwater quality is poor along the coast. The parameters were compared with WHO (Guidelines for drinking water quality recommendations, WHO, Geneva, 2004) standard for drinking purpose. A groundwater classification method has been developed for groundwater in the area using a dynamic water quality index (WQI). On the basis of the WQI so computed, groundwater in the area has been spatially classified into “excellent,” “good,” “poor” and “very poor” to “Unsuitable” water types variation lithologywise. Corrosivity ratio and hardness were noted to be higher and found to be unsuitable in majority of the regions for domestic purpose. Higher fluoride concentration was noted in the central part of the study area represented by complex geology comprising of the hornblende biotite gneiss and charnockite. Sodium percentage (Na%), sodium absorption ratio, residual sodium carbonate, Wilcox (Classification and use of irrigation waters, US Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1955), permeability index, residual sodium bicarbonate, magnesium hazard, Kelly’s ratio and potential salinity also indicate that most of the groundwater samples are not suitable for irrigation purposes.     

The holocene dynamics of vegetation and environmental conditions on the eastern slope of the Northern Urals

Consideration is given to changes in the vegetation and climatic conditions on the eastern slope of the Northern Urals in the second half of the Holocene as reconstructed on the basis of integrated palynological, botanical, paleocarpological, and radiocarbon analysis of material from a peat bog section in the floodplain of the Loz’va River. The results show that the northern taiga zone of the study region in the period between approximately 5000 and 700 years BP was occupied by forests of southern taiga facies, as the climate was significantly warmer than it is today.     

Recent socio-economic changes in relation to environmental quality of the Pearl River delta

Due to the favorable weather, abundant water resources and fertile soil, the area has been known as the homeland for crops and fish. However, being one of the most developed regions in China, the environmental quality of the Pearl River delta has deteriorated due to recent socio-economic changes during the past two decades. The drivers are industrialization and economic growth, population growth and agricultural development; and the pressures are water pollution which include nutrients and suspended solids, pesticides, other persistent toxic substances (PAHs and PCBs) and oil. These have imposed various impacts such as eutrophication, formation of red tides and biomagnification of organic contaminants through food chains. In response to these, regulatory measures have been established by the Environmental Protection Bureau of Guangdong Province, joining forces with environmental protection authorities in all urban cities and most counties, in addition to the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department, to control pollution in order to prevent further environmental deterioration and economic loss. The present paper is an attempt by following the DPSIR approach promoted by the OECD in the early 1990s and further developed by IGBP LOICZ to review the environmental quality of Pearl River with emphasis on water quality and the impact of rapid socio-economic changes.     

Simulating transport of non-Chernobyl (137)Cs and (90)Sr in the North Atlantic-Arctic region

The spatial and temporal distributions of the anthropogenic radionuclides (137)Cs and (90)Sr, originating from nuclear bomb testing and the Sellafield reprocessing plants in the Irish Sea, are simulated using a global version of the Miami Isopycnic Coordinate Ocean Model (MICOM). The physical model is forced with daily atmospheric re-analysed fields for the period 1950 to present. Comparison of temporal evolution of observed and simulated concentrations of (137)Cs have been conducted for the regions east of Scotland, west of central Norway and at the entrance of the Barents Sea. It follows that the radionuclides from the Sellafield discharge reach the Barents Sea region after 4-5 years, in accordance with observations. The simulation provides a detailed distribution and evolution of the radionuclides over the integration time. For the Atlantic waters off the coast of Norway and in the southern Barents Sea, the atmospheric fallout dominates over the Sellafield release up to the mid 1960s and from the early 1990s, whereas Sellafield is the main source for the two radionuclides in the 1970s and 1980s. It is furthermore argued that model systems like the one presented here can be used for future prediction of radioactive contaminations in the Nordic Seas and the Arctic Ocean, for instance under various global warming scenarios.     

Concentration measurements of 7Be at ground level air at Palermo, Italy-comparison with solar activity over a period of 21 years

Air activity concentrations of (7)Be in Palermo determined for the period January 1995-December 2002 by gamma-ray spectrometric analysis of particulate samples collected on paper filter by a high-volume sampler (approximately 900 m(3) h(-1)) are reported. The temporal behaviour of (7)Be concentration presents the same characteristics already observed in the measurements carried out over the previous 13-year (1982-1994) investigated period. The mean value of 5.06 mBq m(-3) obtained from the analysis of the 4636 particulate samples collected from 1982 to 2002 can be considered a representative value of (7)Be air concentration at ground level in our geographical zone. The comparison of long-term variation in the (7)Be concentrations with the cyclic solar activity-extended to the whole period of 21 years-confirms the inverse correlation between the two quantities.     

Characterisation of heavy metal discharge into the Ria of Huelva

The Ria of Huelva estuary, in SW Spain, is known to be one of the most heavy metal contaminated estuaries in the world. River contribution to the estuary of dissolved Cu, Zn, Mn, Cr, Ni, Cd, and As were analysed for the period 1988-2001. The obtained mean values show that this contribution, both because of the magnitude of total metals (895.1 kg/h), composition, toxicity (8.7 kg/h of As+Cd+Pb) and persistence, is an incomparable case in heavy metal contamination of estuaries. The amount and typology of heavy metal discharge to the Ria of Huelva are related to freshwater flow (and, consequently, to rainfall); as a result, two different types of heavy metal discharge can be distinguished in the estuary: during low water (50% of the days), with only 19.3 kg/h of heavy metals, and during high water or flood (17% of the days), where daily maximum discharge of 72,475 kg of heavy metals were recorded, from which 1481 kg were of As, 470 kg of Pb, and 170 kg of Cd. In the most frequent situation (77% of the days), the Odiel River discharges from 90% to 100% of the freshwater received by the estuary. Despite this, the high concentration of heavy metals in the Tinto River water causes this river to discharge into the Ria of Huelva 12.5% of fluvial total dissolved metal load received by the estuary.