A note on attitudes and knowledge concerning environmental issues in Sweden

As part of a larger research effort, the empirical basis for this note is responses to four out of many questions in a mailed survey, which primarily focused on national environmental objectives in Sweden. The results show that out of eight broad areas for use of tax money, five-including environment-are rated as important by over 90% of the respondents. Respondents appear to be less willing to discriminate between different issues covered by national environmental objectives, as all of these are rated as important by more than 80% of the respondents. The function of the ozone layer is an example of an environmental issue where the knowledge among people is relatively high, while this is not the case when it comes to the amount of pesticides used in agriculture. The results also show less support for actions at the individual level to improve the environment, as compared to support for actions taken by society at large through, e.g., technological improvement or policy intervention.     

孟加拉国吉大港山区轮垦的可持续性评价

引言 轮垦是一种已存在多年的耕作方法,意味着从大气或从尘土沉降中得到补充的并逐渐释放到土壤中的植物营养物质在休耕期间积累在植被和土壤中.在通过砍伐和焚烧清除天然植被之后,耕地可种植庄稼1年或2年,然后让天然植被复原[1].     

Sustainability appraisal of shifting cultivation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh

An integrated socioeconomic and erosion study on the sustainability of traditional shifting cultivation (Jhum) carried out in 1998 and 1999 in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh showed the system to be nonsustainable under the current conditions with fallow periods of only 3-5 years and lack of land rights. An estimated input (mainly labor) of USD 380 ha(-1) yr(-1) results in only a total output of USD 360 ha(-1) yr(-1) and Jhum cultivated areas suffer severe loss of soil and valuable plant nutrients along with runoff during the rainy season. To compensate these losses by commercial fertilizers will cost nearly USD 2 million yr(-1) for CHT. To ensure long-term productivity of the soils, Jhum should therefore be adjusted to a tolerable level and farmers should be given rights and title to the land to motivate them to switch to improved, settled farming systems.     

Stress on and off the job as related to sex and occupational status in white-collar workers

Sixty healthy non-smoking white collar employees, aged 30–50, from a large corporation in Sweden participated in the study. There were four groups: 15 male and 15 female middle managers, 15 male and 15 female clerical workers. Each participant was examined individually with regard to cardiovascular and neuroendocrine functions and self-reports for 12 consecutive hours under each of two conditions: (1) a normal day at work (9 a.m.–5 p.m.) and after work (6–9 p.m.), and (2) for the same time period during work-free conditions at home. In addition, everyone was given a videotaped type A-interview and a general health check-up including blood-lipid determination. Attitudes towards work, total workload (including responsibilities outside the paid work) and sex role identity were examined by questionnaires. As expected, all groups showed a moderate increase in cardiovascular and neuroendocrine activity during the day at work. After work, however, interesting group differences emerged, suggesting slower unwinding in female managers. Differences related to occupational level and/ or sex were found for autonomy and social support at work, competitiveness, sex role and reported conflict between demands from paid work and other responsibilities. The stress profile of the female managers was considered in terms of possible long-term health risks.     

A field trial to assess the performance of CO2-supersaturated water injection for residual volatile LNAPL recovery

A pilot scale field trial was conducted to evaluate the recovery of volatile, light non-aqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs) using a novel remediation method termed supersaturated water injection (SWI). SWI uses a patented technology to efficiently dissolve high concentrations of CO₂ into water at elevated pressures. This water is injected into the subsurface resulting in the nucleation of CO₂ bubbles at and away from the injection point. The nucleating bubbles coalesce, rise and volatilize residual LNAPL ganglia. In this study, an LNAPL composed of 103 kg of volatile pentane and hexane, and 30 kg of non-volatile Soltrol was emplaced below the water table at residual saturation. The SWI technology removed 78% of the pentane and 50% of the less volatile hexane. Contaminant mass was still being removed when the system was shut down for practical reasons. The mass removed is comparable to that expected for air sparging but a much smaller volume of gas was injected using the SWI system.     

Ecosystem goods and services from Swedish coastal habitats: identification, valuation, and implications of ecosystem shifts

Coastal areas are exposed to a variety of threats due to high population densities and rapid economic development. How will this affect human welfare and our dependence on nature's capacity to provide ecosystem goods and services? This paper is original in evaluating this concern for major habitats (macroalgae, seagrasses, blue mussel beds, and unvegetated soft bottoms) in a temperate coastal setting. More than 40 categories of goods and services are classified into provisional, regulating, and cultural services. A wide variety of Swedish examples is described for each category, including accounts of economic values and the relative importance of different habitats. For example, distinguishing characteristics would be the exceptional importance of blue mussels for mitigation of eutrophication, sandy soft bottoms for recreational uses, and seagrasses and macroalgae for fisheries production and control of wave and current energy. Net changes in the provision of goods and services are evaluated for three cases of observed coastal ecosystem shifts: i) seagrass beds into unvegetated substrate; ii) unvegetated shallow soft bottoms into filamentous algal mat dominance; and iii) macroalgae into mussel beds on hard substrate. The results are discussed in a management context including accounts of biodiversity, interconnectedness of ecosystems, and potential of economic valuation.     

Prognostic framing of stakeholders' subjectivities: a case of all-terrain vehicle management on state public lands

Management of all-terrain vehicle (ATV) use on Minnesota state forest lands has a contentious history and land managers are caught between ATV riders, non-motorized recreationists, private landowners, and environmental advocates. In this paper, we demonstrate the usefulness of framing distinct perspectives about ATV management on Minnesota state public forests, understand the structure of these management perspectives, identify areas of consensus and disagreement, specify which stakeholders hold the various perspectives, clarify stakeholder perceptions of other stakeholders, and explore the implications for ATV planning and management. Using Q methodology, three distinct perspectives about how we should or should not manage ATVs resulted from our analysis, labeled Expert Management, Multiple Use, and Enforcement and Balance. A surprising degree of unanimity among the three management perspectives was found. Although some of the areas of agreement would be difficult to implement, others would be relatively simple to put into place. We suggest that land managers focus on widely accepted management actions to ameliorate commonly recognized problems, which may ease tensions between stakeholders and make tackling the tougher issues easier.     

Combustion experiments using pentachlorophenol on a pilot scale and full-scale

Chlorinated phenols are used at many saw mills for impregnation of saw timber. Waste products containing the used compound follow this process. Tests have been performed on pilot and full-scale in order to investigate the possibility of destroying these wastes by combustion.The pilot scale tests with 70 g of pentachlorophenol show that at a transit time of approximately 3 seconds and a combustion temperature of 600°C the unburnt residue was 50 mg/kg fed in pentachlorophenol. At 800°C the residue decreased to 15 mg/kg. No formation of octachlorodioxin could be proved.The full-scale test with a small amount of pentachlorophenol and a large amount of tetrachlorophenol show that at a transit time of approximately 0.9 seconds and a temperature varying during one test between 620–875° (average 760°C), the unburnt residue was 9 mg/kg for tetrachlorophenol and 650 mg/kg for pentachlorophenol. At an increased load the residue increased gradually, being 5.900 mg/kg for tetrachlorophenol and 7.100 mg/kg for pentachlorophenol at a test when the temperature was varied between 460 and 850° (average 620°C). Analyses of chlorinated dioxins show that octachlorodioxin was found in the flue gas at one of the tests. This may indicate a formation.