Ecophilosophy and science

Summary This paper aims to do two main things: first, to provide an introduction to ecophilosophy by presenting a spectrum of positions that have been developed to characterise the relationship between humans and their environment; second, to examine the variety of ways in which scientific work impacts upon human thought in regard to each of these positions. The import of this discussion should be twofold: first, it should help to acquaint readers with, and hopefully, interest them in, the kinds of developments that have been occurring in the area of ecophilosophy; second, it should help to acquaint environmentally concerned people with, and, hopefully, interest them in, the relevance of science to their arguments. Although many environmentally concerned people are scientifically informed, this second aim is worth stating because a number of environmentally concerned people unfortunately remain suspicious of the role of science in general.Dr Warwick Fox is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Studies at the University of Tasmania. His first degree, in experimental psychology from the University of Western Australia, was followed by PhD in environmental philosophy. Currently his research interests are concerned with the development of a comprehensive and coherent oriented world view, from epistemology and cosmology to psychology, ethnics and politics.     

A question of justice: are holiday clubs serving the most deprived communities in England?

In response to the problem of holiday hunger, hundreds of local “holiday clubs” have recently been established across the UK. This research examines the spatial relationship between income, childhood deprivation, ethnicity and holiday clubs across 32,844 Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) in England to determine if these clubs are currently operating in an inclusive fashion. Data on the location of holiday clubs comes from a national survey. Binary logistic regression results suggest that holiday clubs are likely to operate in economically disadvantaged areas. At the same time, clubs are not distributed equally by ethnicity. That is, holiday clubs operated by voluntary organisations are more likely to be situated in LSOAs that are disproportionately white and English\British and less likely to be situated in LSOAs that are disproportionately ethnic minority. This finding has important implications for the pursuit of holiday clubs as a policy mechanism for addressing access to food in light of the state’s failure to adequately feed all of the country’s children.     

The practice of valuing the environment in cost-benefit analyses in transport and spatial projects

Scientific debates on environmental impacts in cost-benefit analysis (CBA) focus on methodological questions. The literature, however, contains very little information on the influence of these debates on CBAs made in spatial planning practice. In this paper, this gap is filled by a qualitative analysis of 67 CBAs made in the Netherlands between 2000 and 2011. From the literature on environmental valuation, we derive criteria to evaluate the quality of CBA practice, such as completeness and the inclusion of uncertainties. The analysis shows that in many cases relevant environmental effects are omitted or not monetised. Moreover, non-monetised effects are often not included in CBA conclusions. If impacts are monetised, the methods used are frequently not very sophisticated. The consequences of assumptions are often not communicated, for example, where high discount rates make long-term effects seem unimportant. In this research we identify four main points for good practice.     

Soil microbial response to waste potassium silicate drilling fluid

Potassium silicate drilling fluids(PSDF) are a waste product of the oil and gas industry with potential for use in land reclamation. Few studies have examined the influence of PSDF on abundance and composition of soil bacteria and fungi. Soils from three representative locations for PSDF application in Alberta, Canada, with clay loam, loam and sand textures were studied with applications of unused, used once and used twice PSDF. For all three soils, applying ≥ 40 m3/ha of used PSDF significantly affected the existing soil microbial flora. No microbiota was detected in unused PSDF without soil. Adding used PSDF to soil significantly increased total fungal and aerobic bacterial colony forming units in dilution plate counts, and anaerobic denitrifying bacteria numbers in serial growth experiments.Used PSDF altered bacterial and fungal colony forming unit ratios of all three soils.     

Soil microbial response to waste potassium silicate drilling fluid

Potassium silicate drilling fluids (PSDF) are a waste product of the oil and gas industry with potential for use in land reclamation. Few studies have examined the influence of PSDF on abundance and composition of soil bacteria and fungi. Soils from three representative locations for PSDF application in Alberta, Canada, with clay loam, loam and sand textures were studied with applications of unused, used once and used twice PSDF. For all three soils, applying ≥40 m³/ha of used PSDF significantly affected the existing soil microbial flora. No microbiota was detected in unused PSDF without soil. Adding used PSDF to soil significantly increased total fungal and aerobic bacterial colony forming units in dilution plate counts, and anaerobic denitrifying bacteria numbers in serial growth experiments. Used PSDF altered bacterial and fungal colony forming unit ratios of all three soils.     

Substrate-dependent bacterivory by intertidal benthic copepods

The trophic importance of bacteria to harpacticoid copepods in intertidal areas remains poorly understood, and so do the mechanisms of bacterial feeding. It is, for instance, unclear whether harpacticoids directly target bacterial cells or merely co-ingest them with substrates to which bacterial cells may be attached. Here, we investigate bacterial uptake and substrate requirement for four mud intertidal species (Microarthridion littorale, Platychelipus littoralis, Delavalia palustris and Nannopus palustris) by means of ¹³C-labeled bacteria and biomarker fatty acids (FA). Bacterial uptake strongly depended on grazing on a primary food source but bacterial ingestion rates were low, and no clear indication of copepods directly targeting bacteria was found. Delavalia was the only species that accumulated bacteria-derived FA and gained in polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) probably through bioconversion of bacteria-derived FA. In general, however, our results suggest that bacteria represent a relatively minor and low-quality food for intertidal harpacticoid copepods.