Sustainability: A Study of the Level of Ecological Behavior of Postgraduate Students in Brazil

The decline in the supply of natural resources is a cause for concern, especially given continued worldwide population growth. New habits and attitudes toward resource use are slowly being introduced into the everyday lives of persons residing in a number of countries. The term “ecological behavior” refers to acting in favor of the environment, whether these actions are voluntarily or not, or learned or not (Pato & Tamayo, 2006 ). The general objective of this study is to identify the environmental behavior—one of several terms used interchangeably with ecological behavior—of graduate students from a Brazilian federal institution of higher education. We chose this particular group because many of them already act, or will act, as professors. Thus, by virtue of their positions, they will function as opinion leaders who will influence the education of future professionals, establishing a chain through which shared values can gradually change the environmental behavior of society.     

Sustainable regeneration: a guiding vision towards low-carbon transition?

While the concept of sustainable development brings together concepts of economic, environmental and social sustainability, much has been said regarding inherent tensions between them. Conflicts between economic and environmental objectives, in particular, have been noted as restraining efforts to instigate transitions to environmental sustainability, with growth ambitions limiting environmental policy to “win–win” cases. This paper argues that they can also play complementary roles in managing transitions by creating inclusive visions for rallying actors and resources. This is explored by looking at a case of sustainable regeneration in Wales, UK. Using as a case study the Arbed scheme, an area-based project established in 2009 to retrofit housing stock for energy efficiency, this paper shows how the scheme explicitly addresses economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability; and, in particular, how sustainable development aims constituted a guiding vision that supported the formation of actor and resource networks necessary for large-scale retrofitting.     

Post‐tsunami relocation of fisher settlements in South Asia: evidence from the Coromandel Coast,India

The tsunami that struck the coasts of India on 26 December 2004 resulted in the large‐scale destruction of fisher habitations. The post‐tsunami rehabilitation effort in Tamil Nadu was directed towards relocating fisher settlements in the interior. This paper discusses the outcomes of a study on the social effects of relocation in a sample of nine communities along the Coromandel Coast. It concludes that, although the participation of fishing communities in house design and in allocation procedures has been limited, many fisher households are satisfied with the quality of the facilities. The distance of the new settlements to the shore, however, is regarded as an impediment to engaging in the fishing profession, and many fishers are actually moving back to their old locations. This raises questions as to the direction of coastal zone policy in India, as well as to the weight accorded to safety (and other coastal development interests) vis‐à‐vis the livelihood needs of fishers.     

Tolerance (PICT) of the bacterial communities to copper in vineyards soils from Spain

To detect effects of Cu pollution, the Cu tolerance of soil bacterial communities extracted from several vineyards located in NW Spain was measured. Bacterial community tolerance was estimated by means of the thymidine (TdR) and leucine (Leu) incorporation techniques using either IC(50) values (the log of the metal concentration that reduced incorporation to 50%) or the percentage of activity at one specific Cu concentration (10(-6) mol L(-1)). The tolerance measurements by the TdR incorporation technique were similar to those obtained by the Leu incorporation method, indicating that the two methods were equivalent in terms of suitability for detecting the toxicity of Cu to soil bacterial communities. The two tolerance indices considered (IC50 values and percentage of activity) were closely correlated (r = 0.975, P < 0.001), showing that both were equally good in measuring Cu tolerance of the bacterial community. An increased bacterial community tolerance to Cu, indicating a pollution effect, was observed in vineyard soils with more than 100 mg Cu kg(-1) soil. Thus, the long-term use of Cu in vineyards has a toxic effect on the soil bacterial community, resulting in an increased tolerance. An effect of increased levels of Cu could not be detected when measuring bacterial community activity, pointing to the increased sensitivity to detect toxicity in field studies using tolerance measurements.