Reach and messages of the world's largest ivory burn

Recent increases in ivory poaching have depressed African elephant populations. Successful enforcement has led to ivory stockpiling. Stockpile destruction is becoming increasingly popular, and most destruction has occurred in the last 5 years. Ivory destruction is intended to send a strong message against ivory consumption, both in promoting a taboo on ivory use and catalyzing policy change. However, there has been no effort to establish the distribution and extent of media reporting on ivory destruction events globally. We analyzed media coverage of the largest ivory destruction event in history (Kenya, 30 April 2016) across 11 nation states connected to ivory trade. We used an online‐media crawling tool to search online media outlets and subjected 5 of the largest print newspapers (by circulation) in 5 nations of interest to content analysis. Most online news on the ivory burn came from the United States (81% of 1944 articles), whereas most of the print news articles came from Kenya (61% of 157 articles). Eighty‐six to 97% of all online articles reported the burn as a positive conservation action, whereas 4–50% discussed ivory burning as having a negative impact on elephant conservation. Most articles discussed law enforcement and trade bans as effective for elephant conservation. There was more relative search interest globally in the 2016 Kenyan ivory burn than any other burn in 5 years. Ours is the first attempt to track the reach of media coverage relative to an ivory burn and provides a case study in tracking the effects of a conservation‐marketing event.     

Concentrations and source characteristics of airborne carbonyl compounds measured outside urban residences

This paper presents the analysis of ambient air concentrations of 10 carbonyl compounds (aldehydes and ketones) measured in the yards of 87 residences in the city of Elizabeth, NJ, throughout 1999-2001. Most of these residences were measured twice in different seasons; the sampling duration was 48 hr each time. The authors observed higher concentrations for most of the measured carbonyl compounds on warmer days, reflecting larger contributions of photochemical reactions on warmer days. The estimated contributions of photochemical production varied substantially across the measured carbonyl compounds and could be as high as 60%. Photochemical activity, however, resulted in a net loss for formaldehyde. The authors used stepwise multiple linear regression models to evaluate the impact of traffic sources and meteorological conditions on carbonyl concentrations using the data collected on colder days (with lower photochemical activities). They found that the concentrations of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acrolein, propionaldehyde, crotonaldehyde, benzaldehyde, glyoxal, and methylglyoxal significantly decreased with increasing distance between a measured residence and one or more major roadways. They also found significant negative associations between concentrations for most of the measured carbonyl compounds and each of the following meteorological parameters: mixing height, wind speed, and precipitation.     

Measuring safety climate in elderly homes

IntroductionProvision of a valid and reliable safety climate dimension brings enormous benefits to the elderly home sector. The aim of the present study was to make use of the safety climate instrument developed by OSHC to measure the safety perceptions of employees in elderly homes such that the factor structure of the safety climate dimensions of elderly homes could be explored.MethodIn 2010, surveys by mustering on site method were administered in 27 elderly homes that had participated in the "Hong Kong Safe and Healthy Residential Care Home Accreditation Scheme" organized by the Occupational Safety and Health Council.ResultsSix hundred and fifty-one surveys were returned with a response rate of 54.3%. To examine the factor structure of safety climate dimensions in our study, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using principal components analysis method was conducted to identify the underlying factors. The results of the modified seven-factor's safety climate structure extracted from 35 items better reflected the safety climate dimensions of elderly homes. The Cronbach alpha range for this study (0.655 to 0.851) indicated good internal consistency among the seven-factor structure. Responses from managerial level, supervisory and professional level, and front-line staff were analyzed to come up with the suggestion on effective ways of improving the safety culture of elderly homes. The overall results showed that managers generally gave positive responses in the factors evaluated, such as "management commitment and concern to safety," "perception of work risks and some contributory influences," "safety communication and awareness," and "safe working attitude and participation." Supervisors / professionals, and frontline level staff on the other hand, have less positive responses. The result of the lowest score in the factors - "perception of safety rules and procedures" underlined the importance of the relevance and practicability of safety rules and procedures.ConclusionThe modified OSHC safety climate tool provided better evidence of structural validity and reliability for use by elderly homes' decision makers as an indicator of employee perception of safety in their institution.Impact on industryThe findings and suggestions in the study provide useful information for the management, supervisors/professionals and frontline level staff to cultivate the safety culture in the elderly home sector. Most important, elderly homes can use the modified safety climate scale to identify problem areas in their safety culture and safety management practices and then target these for intervention.     

Extinction in a hyperdiverse endemic Hawaiian land snail family and implications for the underestimation of invertebrate extinction

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List includes 832 species listed as extinct since 1600, a minuscule fraction of total biodiversity. This extinction rate is of the same order of magnitude as the background rate and has been used to downplay the biodiversity crisis. Invertebrates comprise 99% of biodiversity, yet the status of a negligible number has been assessed. We assessed extinction in the Hawaiian land snail family Amastridae (325 species, IUCN lists 33 as extinct). We did not use the stringent IUCN criteria, by which most invertebrates would be considered data deficient, but a more realistic approach comparing historical collections with modern surveys and expert knowledge. Of the 325 Amastridae species, 43 were originally described as fossil or subfossil and were assumed to be extinct. Of the remaining 282, we evaluated 88 as extinct and 15 as extant and determined that 179 species had insufficient evidence of extinction (though most are probably extinct). Results of statistical assessment of extinction probabilities were consistent with our expert evaluations of levels of extinction. Modeling various extinction scenarios yielded extinction rates of 0.4‐14.0% of the amastrid fauna per decade. The true rate of amastrid extinction has not been constant; generally, it has increased over time. We estimated a realistic average extinction rate as approximately 5%/decade since the first half of the nineteenth century. In general, oceanic island biotas are especially susceptible to extinction and global rate generalizations do not reflect this. Our approach could be used for other invertebrates, especially those with restricted ranges (e.g., islands), and such an approach may be the only way to evaluate invertebrates rapidly enough to keep up with ongoing extinction.     

Biochar incorporation into pasture soil suppresses in situ nitrous oxide emissions from ruminant urine patches

Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from grazing animal excreta are estimated to be responsible for 1.5 Tg of the total 6.7 Tg of anthropogenic N2O emissions. This study was conducted to determine the in situ effect of incorporating biochar, into soil, on N2O emissions from bovine urine patches and associated pasture uptake of N. The effects of biochar rate (0-30 t ha(-1)), following soil incorporation, were investigated on ruminant urine-derived N2O fluxes, N uptake by pasture, and pasture yield. During an 86-d spring-summer period, where irrigation and rainfall occurred, the N2O fluxes from 15N labeled ruminant urine patches were reduced by >50%, after incorporating 30 t ha(-1) of biochar. Taking into account the N2O emissions from the control plots, 30 t ha(-1) ofbiochar reduced the N2O emission factor from urine by 70%. The atom% 15N enrichment of the N2O emitted was lower in the 30 t ha(-1) biochar treatment, indicating less urine-N contributed to the N2O flux. Soil NO3- -N concentrations were lower with increasing biochar rate during the first 30 d following urine deposition. No differences occurred, due to biochar addition, with respect to dry matter yields, herbage N content, or recovery of 15N applied in herbage. Incorporating biochar into the soil can significantly diminish ruminant urine-derived N2O emissions. Further work is required to determine the persistence of the observed effect and to fully understand the mechanism(s) of the observed reduction in N2O fluxes.     

Air Pollution Resulting from Incineration—its Reduction and Control

Historically, in evaluations of the impact of power plant emissions, the region of concern was generally the immediate vicinity (up to a radius of about 100 km) of the power plant in question, and the pollutant of concern was mainly sulfur dioxide emitted by the power plant. In most scientific work relating to atmospheric transport of emissions, little or no attention was given to the regional (up to a radius of about 1000 km) transport of pollutants. Recently, however, more emphasis has been placed on the evaluation of regional transport^1-8.     

Chemical treatment of oil spills

Chemical treatment methods have been used with varying degrees of success for mitigating the environmental effects resulting from oil spills. These methods include dispersing, herding, and gelling a floating oil slick; sinking the oil; burning the oil mass either on open waters or on the affected shoreline; and applying film-forming chemical agents to protect shorelines from oil than eludes offshore cleanup. The latest technical information on the applicability and effectiveness of these approaches for treating and controlling oil spills is presented.