General vs. domain specific recycling behaviour—Applying a multilevel comprehensive action determination model to recycling in Norwegian student homes

This paper reports the results of a multilevel structure equation model predicting general and fraction specific self-reported recycling behaviour. The model was tested on a sample of 697 undergraduate students from four Norwegian universities who each reported their degree of participation in the local recycling schemes for paper/cardboard, glass, metal, and plastic. It was demonstrated that variance in recycling behaviour can be divided into a smaller general part that is relatively stable across waste fractions and a specific part that depends on the respective fraction. General recycling behaviour is well predicted by intentions to recycle and recycling habits, whereas perceived behavioural control is to a large extend fraction specific and influences the fraction specific recycling. Perceived behavioural control mediates the influence of the recycling scheme type, distance to recycling containers, and transport mode used to reach the recycling containers.     

A Semiotic Approach to Food and Ethics in Everyday Life

The aim of this paper is to explore how food can be analyzed in terms of signs and codes of everyday life, and especially how food can be used to express ethical concerns. The paper investigates the potential of a semiotic conceptual analysis: How can the semiotic approach be used to analyze expressions of ethics and food ethics in everyday life? The intention is to explore from a theoretical point of view and with constructed cases, how semiotics can be used to analyze the role of food as an expression of ethics in everyday life among families, friends, and colleagues: How do foodstuffs function as signs of ethics in everyday life? How is food used to send signals about care and concern? How are the signs of food ethics perceived? It is concluded that analyzing ethical considerations with respect to food with the help of the semiotic model can show us perspectives that otherwise would be difficult to see and thus we can address everyday food ethical issues that otherwise might not be noted. The semiotic approach to food ethics in everyday life is a conceptual framework that can be used to draw attention to certain domains and fields of food ethical behavior that otherwise would tend to remain implicit and unspoken.     

Glocalization of COVID-19 responses and management of the pandemic in Africa

ABSTRACT

The study explores how glocalization of COVID-19 responses affects the management of the pandemic in Africa. Using data from 20 selected African countries, the study found that the reliance on local medicines alongside other salient global initiatives for containment of COVID-19 is effective in managing the pandemic in Africa. It concluded that despite the high vulnerabilities of African countries to COVID-19, the glocal approach has yielded positive outcomes by increasing the number of patients that recover from COVID-19 and scaling down the fatalities compared with the other regions.     

One laptop per child,local refurbishment or overseas donations? Sustainability assessment of computer supply scenarios for schools in Colombia

With the intention of bridging the ‘digital divide’ many programmes have been launched to provide computers for educational institutions, ranging from refurbishing second hand computers to delivering low cost new computers. The fast and economical provision of large quantities of equipment is one of the many challenges faced by such programmes. If an increase is to be achieved in the sustainability of computer supplies for schools, not only must equipment be provided, but also suitable training and maintenance delivered. Furthermore, appropriate recycling has to be ensured, so that end-of-life equipment can be dealt with properly. This study has evaluated the suitability of three computer supply scenarios to schools in Colombia: (i) ‘Colombian refurbishment’, -refurbishment of computers donated in Colombia, (ii) ‘Overseas refurbishment’, -import of computers which were donated and refurbished abroad, and (iii) ‘XO Laptop’, -purchase of low cost computers manufactured in Korea. The methods applied were: Material Flow Assessment, -to assess the quantities-, Life Cycle Assessment, -to assess the environmental impacts, and the application of the Multiple Attribute Utility Theory, -to analyse, evaluate and compare different scenarios. The most sustainable solution proved to be the local refurbishment of second hand computers of Colombian origin to an appropriate technical standard. The environmental impacts of such practices need to be evaluated carefully, as second hand appliances have to be maintained, require spare parts and sometimes use more energy than newer equipment. Providing schools with second hand computers from overseas and through programmes such as ‘One Laptop Per Child’ has the disadvantage that the potential for social improvements – such as creation of jobs and local industry involvement – is very low.     

An Approach for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Various Ozone Air Quality Standards for Protecting Trees

We demonstrate an approach for evaluating the level of protection attained using a variety of forms and levels of past, current, and proposed Air Quality Standards (AQSs). The U.S. Clean Air Act requires the establishment of ambient air quality standards to protect health and public welfare. However, determination of attainment of these standards is based on ambient pollutant concentrations rather than prevention of adverse effects. To determine if a given AQS protected against adverse effects on vegetation, hourly ozone concentrations were adjusted to create exposure levels that “just attain” a given standard. These exposures were used in combination with a physiologically-based tree growth model to account for the interactions of climate and ozone. In the evaluation, we used ozone concentrations from two 6-year time periods from the San Bernardino Mountains in California. There were clear differences in the level of vegetation protection achieved with the various AQSs. Based on modeled plant growth, the most effective standards were the California 8-hr average maximum of 70 ppb and a seasonal, cumulative, concentration-weighted index (SUM06), which if attained, resulted in annual growth reductions of 1% or less. Least effective was the 1-hr maximum of 120 ppb which resulted in a 7% annual reduction. We conclude that combining climate, exposure scenarios, and a process-based plant growth simulator was a useful approach for evaluating effectiveness of current or proposed air quality standards, or evaluating the form and/or level of a standard based on preventing adverse growth effects.     

The impact of human frequentation on coastal vegetation in a biosphere reserve

We aimed to assess the impacts of recreational trampling on rare species, plant communities and landscape structure in the Iroise Biosphere Reserve (western France). Focusing on coastal grasslands, we first identified indicators discriminating human-induced short grasslands (i.e. maintained short by intensive trampling) from natural short grasslands (i.e. maintained by environmental constraints): the presence of lichens and succulent or woody species, which are known to be highly sensitive to trampling, as well as a shallow soil were good indicators of natural short grasslands. Recreational activities affected the majority of plots containing rare species, but one third of rare species (according to their habitat preference) appeared currently not threatened by recreational activities. The other rare species were found in grasslands with low trampling intensity and were not found in grasslands with greater trampling intensity. One lichen species (Teloshistes flavicans) was not affected by trampling intensity, while two plants species (Scilla verna and Ophioglossum lusitanicum) showed higher abundances when trampling was low to medium. When it occurs in natural short grasslands, tourist trampling reduced drastically plant species richness. However, when considering maritime high grasslands, we observed that species richness was higher under low trampling vs. no trampling, but decreased at higher trampling intensity. At a landscape scale, the mean annual rate of path creation was about 1.6% and tourist trampling has already completely destroyed 3.5ha of natural coastal vegetation. Trampling of maritime-high grassland has also created 31ha of short grasslands, which represent 50.8% of the whole short grassland habitat of the island. Moreover trampling affected respectively, 41% and 15% of natural short grasslands and maritime-high grasslands. One of the main suggestions for managers to minimise trampling impacts should be to protect areas of rocky soil covered by short grassland that are still non-trampled and not impacted. Fortunately, this appears compatible with a relatively free access of visitors to coastal areas, as tourists can be redirected towards maritime-high grasslands, an habitat which is less impacted by tourism in terms of affected surface, soil cover, loss of species, or presence of rare species host.     

Deviance partitioning of host factors affecting parasitization in the European brown hare (Lepus europaeus)

Deviance partitioning can provide new insights into the ecology of host-parasite interactions. We studied the host-related factors influencing parasite prevalence, abundance, and species richness in European brown hares (Lepus europaeus) from northern Spain. We defined three groups of explanatory variables: host environment, host population, and individual factors. We hypothesised that parasite infection rates and species richness were determined by different host-related factors depending on the nature of the parasite (endo- or ectoparasite, direct or indirect life cycle). To assess the relative importance of these components, we used deviance partitioning, an innovative approach. The explained deviance (ED) was higher for parasite abundance models, followed by those of prevalence and then by species richness, suggesting that parasite abundance models may best describe the host factors influencing parasitization. Models for parasites with a direct life cycle yielded higher ED values than those for indirect life cycle ones. As a general trend, host individual factors explained the largest proportion of the ED, followed by host environmental factors and, finally, the interaction between host environmental and individual factors. Similar hierarchies were found for parasite prevalence, abundance, and species richness. Individual factors comprised the most relevant group of explanatory variables for both types of parasites. However, host environmental factors were also relevant in models for indirect life-cycle parasites. These findings are consistent with the idea of the host as the main habitat of the parasite; whereas, for indirect life-cycle parasites, transmission would be also modulated by environmental conditions. We suggest that parasitization can be used not only as an indicator of individual fitness but also as an indicator of environmental quality for the host. This research underlines the importance of monitoring parasite rates together with environmental, population, and host factors.