On the preconditions for large-scale collective action

Ambio - The phenomenon of collective action and the origin of collective action problems have been extensively and systematically studied in the social sciences. Yet, while we have substantial...     

Establishing A Earth Observation Product Service For The Terrestrial Carbon Community: The Globcarbon Initiative

'Greenhouse gases', especially carbon dioxide, are intimately connected to climate change. To understand the future evolution of the climate system and find ways to manage the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the processes and feedbacks that drive the carbon cycle must first be understood. However, our current knowledge of spatial and temporal patterns is uncertain, particularly over land and in regions of potentially high sensitivity to change like the boreal zone. The European Space Agency (ESA) GLOBCARBON project aims to generate fully calibrated estimates of at-land products quasi-independent of the original Earth Observation source for use primarily in Dynamic Global Vegetation Models, but also as a contribution to the Global Carbon Project, a cooperation between the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme, International Human Dimensions Programme and the World Climate Research Programme to aid understanding of global carbon cycling. The service will feature estimation of global burned area, the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (f_APAR), leaf area index (LAI) and Vegetation Growth Cycle. The demonstrator will focus on ten complete years, from 1998 to 2007 when overlap exists between ESA Earth Observation sensors and others that are synergistic. However, the system will be flexible so that it is not dependent on any single satellite sensor and therefore can be retrospectively applied to existing archives and used with future satellite sensors.     

Vorschl?ge zur Charakterisierung und quantifizierung pfadübergreifender Schadstoffexpositionen

Zusammenfassung  Um zu einer sachgerechten und nachvollziehbar quantifizierbaren Beurteilung der m?glichen Gesundheitsbelastungen des Menschen durch Schadstoffe zu gelangen, ist es von grundlegender Bedeutung dessen ?u?ere Schadstoffexposition absch?tzen zu k?nnen. Um die Durchführung derartiger Absch?tzungen zu erm?glichen, werden nutzergruppen- und expositionsszenariospezifisch orale, inhalative und dermale Aufnahmeraten für die Kontaktmedien Boden, Pflanzen aus Haus- und Schreberg?rten, Trinkwasser, Staub, Hausstaub und Innenraumluft vorgeschlagen. Diese Aufnahmeraten dienen, gemeinsam mit gemessenen oder berechneten Schadstoffkonzentrationen in den entsprechenden Kontaktmedien, zur Absch?tzung der von Menschen aufgenommenen Schadstoffdosen und erm?glichen durch einen Vergleich mit tolerierbaren Schadstoffdosen eine stoff-, nutzungs- und standortbezogene Beurteilung von Schadstoffexpositionen, auch für komplexe Nutzungen.      

Four decades of research on the Swedish large lakes Mälaren, Hjälmaren, Vättern and Vänern: the significance of monitoring and remedial measures for a sustainable society

The large lakes of Sweden, M?laren, Hj?lmaren, V?ttern and V?nern, have been subjected to water-quality monitoring for almost four decades. Physicochemical variables, plankton and benthic invertebrates have been regularly assessed. Hydrological and sediment conditions, macrophytes, fish, primary production, bacteria and attached algae have been periodically investigated. The human impact, including industrial activities, was reflected in excessive amounts of organic matter, nutrients, metals and persistent organic compounds. From the late 1960s all municipal sewage works in the catchments of the lakes were upgraded to the highest technical standard, including chemical precipitation of phosphorus, and phosphorus discharge from the sewage works was thereby reduced by 90-95%. In addition, industries were obliged to restrict discharge of harmful substances. The reactions of the lakes to the remedial measures are discussed as well as the value of various indicators. The studies were instrumental in designing a national lake monitoring program. Additionally, results from large lake monitoring have contributed to the establishment of national water-quality criteria including, physical, chemical, and biological indicators.     

Oil price scenarios and climate policy: welfare effects of including transportation in the EU emissions trading system

The stringency of policies needed to meet a climate target is influenced by uncertain oil prices because price changes cause emission changes, making the robustness of climate policy instruments important. As a result of its dependence on oil, emissions from the transport sector are particularly sensitive to oil price changes. We use a computable general equilibrium model to study the effects of including the transport sector in the EU??s emissions trading scheme under three future oil price scenarios. Our results show that there are potentially significant welfare gains from including transportation in the emissions trading scheme because the system as a whole helps absorb required changes in climate policy to meet the overall EU cap on emissions. There is, however, a cost in terms of somewhat greater permit price uncertainty.     

Raumbezug und Repräsentativität in der Ökologischen Flächenstichprobe

The quality of regionalizations can only be evaluated with regard to its specific purposes. In environmental monitoring, regionalizations, besides being an analysis tool, has a great importance on the selection of monitoring sites. The article describes the relationship between regionalization, selection procedure and representativeness using the example of Ecological Area Sampling (EAS) and presents the regionalization which was tested in an EAS pilot study.     

How to assess exposure of aquatic organisms to manufactured nanoparticles?

Ecological risk of chemicals is measured by the quotient of predicted no-effect concentrations and predicted exposure concentrations, which are hard to assess for manufactured nanomaterials (NMs). This paper proposes modifications to currently used models, in order to make them suitable for estimating exposure concentrations of NMs in the aquatic environment. We have evaluated the adequacy of the current guidance documents for use with NMs and conclude that nano-specific fate processes, such as sedimentation and dissolution need to be incorporated. We have reviewed the literature on sedimentation and dissolution of NMs in environmentally relevant systems. We deduce that the overall kinetics of water-sediment transport of NMs should be close to first order. The lack of data on dissolution of NMs under environmentally realistic conditions calls for a pragmatic decision on which rates to be used in modeling. We find that first order removal kinetics for dissolution seems adequate. Based on limited data from literature, probable removal rates range from 0 to 10(-4)s(-1) for sedimentation, and from 0 to 10(-5)s(-1) for dissolution. Further experimental data at environmentally relevant conditions for sedimentation and dissolution of NMs is needed.     

Reconnecting to the Biosphere

Humanity has emerged as a major force in the operation of the biosphere, with a significant imprint on the Earth System, challenging social-ecological resilience. This new situation calls for a fundamental shift in perspectives, world views, and institutions. Human development and progress must be reconnected to the capacity of the biosphere and essential ecosystem services to be sustained. Governance challenges include a highly interconnected and faster world, cascading social-ecological interactions and planetary boundaries that create vulnerabilities but also opportunities for social-ecological change and transformation. Tipping points and thresholds highlight the importance of understanding and managing resilience. New modes of flexible governance are emerging. A central challenge is to reconnect these efforts to the changing preconditions for societal development as active stewards of the Earth System. We suggest that the Millennium Development Goals need to be reframed in such a planetary stewardship context combined with a call for a new social contract on global sustainability. The ongoing mind shift in human relations with Earth and its boundaries provides exciting opportunities for societal development in collaboration with the biosphere--a global sustainability agenda for humanity.     

Sustainability or collapse: what can we learn from integrating the history of humans and the rest of nature?

Understanding the history of how humans have interacted with the rest of nature can help clarify the options for managing our increasingly interconnected global system. Simple, deterministic relationships between environmental stress and social change are inadequate. Extreme drought, for instance, triggered both social collapse and ingenious management of water through irrigation. Human responses to change, in turn, feed into climate and ecological systems, producing a complex web of multidirectional connections in time and space. Integrated records of the co-evolving human-environment system over millennia are needed to provide a basis for a deeper understanding of the present and for forecasting the future. This requires the major task of assembling and integrating regional and global historical, archaeological, and paleoenvironmental records. Humans cannot predict the future. But, if we can adequately understand the past, we can use that understanding to influence our decisions and to create a better, more sustainable and desirable future.