Climate justice: framing a new discourse in Brazil

In this article, we evaluate to what extent the Climate Justice discourse has been associated by the press to extreme climate events in Brazil. The text is based on the examination of articles published by important newspapers in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, after two major rain events which produced floods and landslides in these two cities. Based on these findings, we suggest that the adoption of the Climate Change discourse in Brazil could produce three main positive outcomes: improve the discourse's acceptance in the international arena, increase the chances that the claims of affected groups are heard by Brazilian government, and turn current policies designed to correct effects of extreme climate events into structural policies designed to reduce vulnerability and to adapt to Climate Change.     

Environmental comparison of draught animal and tractor power

The environmental impacts of moving to different traction power sources have not been well studied in either developing countries or modern agriculture. This study assesses the environmental impact of the transition from animal to tractor power and vice versa. Three different scenarios are analyzed: a developing country context where draught animal power (DAP) is actually in use; a similar context where DAP is replaced by mechanical traction; and a developed country scenario where mechanical traction is replaced by DAP. The impact assessment focuses on global warming (GW) and primary energy consumption (PEC). The DAP system refers to an Indonesian case study where Peranakan Ongole cattle are used for work, together with the production of milk and meat, and fed with two forage-supplying alternatives. The mechanical traction system considers the cases of a two-wheel tractor (2WT) and a rear-wheel-drive tractor (4WT). In the first scenario, assessing DAP impacts for plowing through process subdivision and indirect impacts allocation to co-products, DAP has a consistent advantage regarding energy consumption, while for CO₂eq emissions, performance is better only in the case of 2WT. In the second scenario, considering product equivalent systems, substituting DAP with tractor power and maintaining the same DAP livestock farming more than doubles the impact; only with the introduction of modern, specialized livestock farming is a reduction achieved. In the third scenario, replacing mechanical traction with DAP results in a greater than three-fold increase in impact for PEC and more than 17 times increase for GW. Further work on the influence of system definition and the socio-economic background would improve the estimates produced in this study.     

In‐Canal Stabilization/Solidification of NAPL‐Impacted Sediments

In situ solidification (ISS) has been used with increasing frequency as a remedial technology for source area treatment at upland sites impacted with a variety of organic contaminants, including coal tar, creosote, and other nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs). With several large, complex, urban water ways and rivers impacted with NAPLs, ISS is more recently being considered as a technology of choice to help reduce remedial costs, minimize short‐ and long‐term impacts of mobile NAPL, and lower the carbon footprint. This article presents the results of a successful pilot study of ISS at the Gowanus Canal Superfund site in Brooklyn, New York. This represents the first major sediment ISS field demonstration project in a saline environment and the first project to evaluate large‐scale implementation of ISS from a barge and through overlaying sediment. ©2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Mitigation needs adaptation: Tropical forestry and climate change

The relationship between tropical forests and global climate change has so far focused on mitigation, while much less emphasis has been placed on how management activities may help forest ecosystems adapt to this change. This paper discusses how tropical forestry practices can contribute to maintaining or enhancing the adaptive capacity of natural and planted forests to global climate change and considers challenges and opportunities for the integration of tropical forest management in broader climate change adaptation. In addition to the use of reduced impact logging to maintain ecosystem integrity, other approaches may be needed, such as fire prevention and management, as well as specific silvicultural options aimed at facilitating genetic adaptation. In the case of planted forests, the normally higher intensity of management (with respect to natural forest) offers additional opportunities for implementing adaptation measures, at both industrial and smallholder levels. Although the integration in forest management of measures aimed at enhancing adaptation to climate change may not involve substantial additional effort with respect to current practice, little action appears to have been taken to date. Tropical foresters and forest-dependent communities appear not to appreciate the risks posed by climate change and, for those who are aware of them, practical guidance on how to respond is largely non-existent. The extent to which forestry research and national policies will promote and adopt management practices in order to assist production forests adapt to climate change is currently uncertain. Mainstreaming adaptation into national development and planning programs may represent an initial step towards the incorporation of climate change considerations into tropical forestry.     

Radiocaesium accumulation in stemwood: integrated approach at the scale of forest stands for contaminated Scots pine in Belarus

Twenty years after the Chernobyl accident, root uptake from the surface layers of contaminated forest soils plays a major role in radiocaesium ((137)Cs) transfer to the trees and accumulation in perennial compartments, including stemwood. Trustworthy long-term predictions (modelling) of stemwood contamination with (137)Cs should accordingly be based on a reliable picture of this source-sink relationship. Considering the complexity of the processes involved in (137)Cs cycling in forest stands, elementary ratios like transfer factors (TF) were shown to be not very relevant for that purpose. At the tree level, alternatives like the wood immobilisation potential (WIP) have therefore been proposed in order to quantify the current net (137)Cs accumulation in stemwood. Our objective was here to compare WIP values determined for a series of contaminated forest stands in Belarus with the corresponding pools of (137)Cs available in the soil for root uptake. The comparison reveals that both indices are quite proportional, whatever the forest ecosystem features. This corroborates the relevancy of WIP as an indicator of the current (137)Cs root uptake by the trees, which could accordingly help to improve the existing models of (137)Cs cycling and the long-term management of contaminated forest ecosystems.     

Isomeric analysis of BTEXs in the atmosphere using beta-cyclodextrin capillary chromatography coupled with thermal desorption and mass spectrometry

An analytical method capable of determining trace levels of BTEX-aromatics (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m-, p- and o-xylenes) in the atmosphere with as high resolution as possible has been developed. The method is based on the preconcentration of air samples using a multibed tube (Carbopack C, Carbograph 1) at ambient temperature, followed by thermal desorption, and analysis of aromatic species by a beta-cyclodextrin capillary chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The resolution achieved was sufficient for individual separation of BTEXs as well as m- and p-xylenes. The BTEX-ratios have been determined in an air tunnel and in on-road, suburban and rural forest atmosphere. The ethylbenzene/m-xylene ratios could provide a deep insight into anthropogenic related NMHC patterns at different locations and under different meteorological conditions and may reflect photochemical processes in the best way.