Environmental goods collection and children’s schooling: evidence from Kenya

This paper presents an empirical study of schooling attendance and collection of environmental resources using cross-sectional data from Kiambu District of Kenya. Because the decision to collect environmental resources and attend school is jointly determined, we used a bivariate probit method to model the decisions. In addition, we corrected for the possible endogeneity of resource-collection work in the school attendance equation by using instrumental variable probit estimation. One of the key findings is that being involved in resource collection reduces the likelihood of a child attending school. The result supports the hypothesis of a negative relationship between children working to collect resources and the likelihood that they will attend school. The results further show that a child’s mother’s involvement in resource collection increases school attendance. In addition, although there is no school attendance discrimination against girls, they are overburdened by resource-collection work. The study recommends immediate policy interventions focusing on the provision of public amenities, such as water and fuelwood.     

Divestment discourse: war,justice, morality and money

The fossil fuel divestment movement has been a vibrant novel development in climate change politics in recent years, particularly in North America. Here, the character of the discourse used to promote divestment as a strategy is explored. The divestment discourse is shown to rest on four overlapping narratives, those of war and enemies, morality, economics and justice. All four are clearly discernible in statements from movement activists, in coverage of divestment campaigns by major news sources and in the movement’s aims, objectives and strategies covered in alternative media. The war narrative, with the formulation of fossil fuel companies as enemies to be overcome to ensure survival, is the dominant narrative. By polarising climate action and identifying an antagonist against which to mobilise, divestment discourse has articulated climate change as an explicitly political phenomenon, in contrast to the primarily consensus and collaboration-based approaches that have predominated in climate politics.     

Photolytic dehalogenation of the marine halogenated natural product Q1

The marine halogenated natural product 2,3,3',4,4',5,5'-heptachloro-1'-methyl-1,2'-bipyrrole (Q1) has been detected in high-trophic level biota throughout the world. In this study we UV-irradiated Q1 in order to produce hexahalogenated 1'-methylbipyrroles (Cl(6)-MBPs). Q1 was transformed with half-lives of <5 min. Already after 5 min, all of the five existing Cl(6)-MBPs (H1-H5) were detected in the irradiated sample. Only one Cl(6)-MBP (2,3,3',4',5,5'-hexachloro-1'-methyl-1,2'-bipyrrole (MBP-77, H2) has been previously described in the literature. H5 was identified as 2,3,3',4,4',5'-hexachloro-1'-methyl-1,2'-bipyrrole (MBP-75) by a specific fragment ion detected by GC/ECNI-MS. Fractionations of the irradiation mixture by reversed-phase HPLC followed by (1)H NMR analysis led to the structure of H4, i.e. 2,3,3',4,4',5-hexachloro-1'-methyl-1,2'-bipyrrole (MBP-74). H1 and H3 showed virtually identical (1)H NMR data. Therefore, it could not determined which of either isomers is 2,3,3',4,5,5'-hexachloro-1'-methyl-1,2'-bipyrrole (MBP-76) and which is 2,3,4,4',5,5'-hexachloro-1'-methyl-1,2'-bipyrrole (MBP-78). In addition, two pentachloro-MBPs (P1 and P3) could be traced back to MBP-62 and MBP-69. Cl(6)-MBPs were analyzed in whale blubber from Australia and skua adipose tissue from Antarctica. The marine mammals contained all Cl(6)-MBPs except for the most abundant in the irradiation experiment. The concentrations of the Cl(6)-MBPs amounted to 0.04-1.76% of the concentration of Q1. The highest concentrations of Cl(6)-MBP isomers in the biota samples were found for MBP-76, MBP-77, and MBP-78. These congeners appeared to be the most lipophilic ones owing to the highest retention time in RP-HPLC. Nevertheless, it remained unclear whether the Cl(6)-MBPs were actual halogenated natural products or environmental metabolites of Q1.     

Fugacity modelling to predict the distribution of organic contaminants in the soil:oil matrix of constructed biopiles

Level I and II fugacity approaches were used to model the environmental distribution of benzene, anthracene, phenanthrene, 1-methylphenanthrene and benzo[a]pyrene in a four phase biopile system, accounting for air, water, mineral soil and non-aqueous phase liquid (oil) phase. The non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) and soil phases were the dominant partition media for the contaminants in each biopile and the contaminants differed markedly in their individual fugacities. Comparison of three soils with different percentage of organic carbon (% org C) showed that the % org C influenced contaminant partitioning behaviour. While benzene showed an aqueous concentration worthy of note for leachate control during biopiling, other organic chemicals showed that insignificant amount of chemicals leached into the water, greatly reducing the potential extent of groundwater contamination. Level II fugacity model showed that degradation was the dominant removal process except for benzene. In all three biopile systems, the rate of degradation of benzo(a)pyrene was low, requiring more than 12 years for soil concentrations from a spill of about 25 kg (100 mol) to be reduced to a concentration of 0.001 microgg(-1). The removal time of 1-methylphenanthrene and either anthracene or phenanthrene was about 1 and 3 years, respectively. In contrast, benzene showed the highest degradation rate and was removed after 136 days in all biopile systems. Overall, this study confirms the association of risk critical contaminants with the residual saturation in treated soils and reinforces the importance of accounting for the partitioning behaviour of both NAPL and soil phases during the risk assessment of oil-contaminated sites.     

Microcosm investigations of stormwater pond sediment toxicity to embryonic and larval amphibians: variation in sensitivity among species

Stormwater ponds have become common features of modern development and often represent significant amounts of open space in urbanized areas. Although stormwater ponds may provide habitat for wildlife, factors responsible for producing variation in wildlife use of ponds have received limited attention. To investigate the role of variation in species tolerances of pollutants in structuring pond-breeding amphibian assemblages, we exposed species tolerant (Bufo americanus) and not tolerant (Rana sylvatica) of urbanization to pond sediments in laboratory microcosms. Pond microcosms had elevated sediment metal levels and chloride water concentrations. Among R. sylvatica embryos, exposure to pond sediments resulted in 100% mortality. In contrast, B. americanus embryos and larvae experienced only sublethal effects (i.e., reduced size at metamorphosis) due to pond sediment exposure. Our results suggest variation in pollutant tolerance among early developmental stages of amphibians may act in concert with terrestrial habitat availability to structure amphibian assemblages associated with stormwater ponds.