Use of scenarios and strategic planning to explore an uncertain future in Greenland

Greenland is facing unpredictable changes due to ongoing exploration in the extractive sector. More exploration applications than ever are being submitted to the Greenlandic authorities and development trends are therefore hard to determine. Based on the challenge of securing strategic planning in the Greenlandic context, this article examines scenario building as a planning tool. An empirical study that uses local stakeholder input identifies nine primary driving forces to frame and setup four scenarios for potential Greenland futures. The study also demonstrates that there are significant barriers for strategic planning. These are related to creating an inclusive process, reaching agreement on values and content of the scenarios and securing coordination, ownership and commitment among the stakeholders.     

A Method for Determining Source Reduction Required to Meet Air Quality Standards

Governmental boundaries which divide our states frequently do not coincide with the natural geographic and atmospheric conditions affecting regional air pollution problems. Moreover, the control regulations of one state may vary from those of its neighbors. Such areal synthesis of air pollution control measures might only minimally curb the difficulties.

Continuity of control will require cooperation among contiguous states. In this study the attitudes of incumbent elected officials and air pollution experts (both from within the Philadelphia metropolitan area) toward governmental responsiveness have been investigated. It was hypothesized that politicians would want to demonstrate a status quo approach while experts would advocate the creation of an environmental agency for the Philadelphia region’s pollution problems. However, both sample groups responded to the questionnaire survey affirming that they want government to establish an environmental regional control agency, based upon an interstate compact, that has authority strong enough to be a strict enforcing agent. This regional agency should meet all federal conditions and thus receive maximum federal financial assistance. The policy level officials of this agency should be appointed experts—so as to avoid partisan politics, and to acquire the most qualified personnel.     

Response

While quality control has been defined and implemented for ambient criteria pollutant monitoring, such as for SO₂, O₃ and total suspended particulates, most of the noncriteria air pollutants currently being measured have not been subject to similar levels of data assurance.. The New Jersey Project on Airborne Toxic Elements and Organic Substances (ATEOS) included the measurement of nearly 50 gaseous and particulate phase noncriteria pollutants, within the structure of a rigorous quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) program. The following report details the QA/QC results for the particulate and vapor phase pollutants measured during the ATEOS project. Consideration is given to a number of basic differences between measuring inorganic and organic pollutants including method detection limits, number of valid samples, and precision and accuracy of the overall methods. Particular emphasis is placed on how the QA/QC data place limits on statistical analyses of noncriteria air pollutant data sets.     

Transport of ammonium perfluorooctanoate in environmental media near a fluoropolymer manufacturing facility

In order to understand better the pathways for transport of ammonium perfluorooctanoate (APFO) from a point source, a focused investigation of environmental media (water and soil) near a fluoropolymer manufacturing facility (Site) was undertaken. Methods were developed and validated at 2 microg kg(-1) [the limit of quantitation (LOQ)] in soil, and at 50 ng l(-1) in water. Environmental media were sampled from a public water supply well field located north of the Site, across a river. The data suggest that APFO air emissions from the Site are transported to the well field, deposited onto the soil, and then migrate downward with precipitation into the underlying aquifer.     

The Effect of an Ergonomic Intervention on Musculoskeletal,Psychosocial and Visual Strain of VDT Entry Work: Organization and Methodology of the International Study

This special issue of the International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics (JOSE) reports the results from an extensive multinational and multidisciplinary collaborative investigation of the impacts on visual display terminal (VDT) work of musculoskeletal, visual, ergonomic, and psychosocial factors. For brevity, this effort has been referred to as the MEPS project (musculoskeletal—eyestrain—psychosocial—stress). This paper lays out the basic methodological structure of the study. The study was conducted in 4 countries utilizing VDT data entry workers as the primary subject population. A battery of objective and subject assessment measures, including muscle load, visual function, physical and visual strain, postural, ergonomic and psychosocial factors, were assessed at 3 different points in time. A pre-test was given prior to an ergonomic intervention. Two post-tests were given 1 month and 1 year after the ergonomic intervention.     

Lichen and bryophyte distribution on oak in London in relation to air pollution and bark acidity

Epiphytic lichen and bryophyte distribution and frequency were investigated on the trunks of 145 young oak trees throughout London and surrounding counties, and compared with pollution levels and bark pH. Sixty-four lichen and four bryophyte species were recorded. Three major zones were identified: (i) two central regions with a few lichens, bryophytes absent; (ii) a surrounding region with a more diverse flora including a high cover of nitrophyte lichens; and (iii) an outer region, characterised by species absent from central London, including acidophytes. Nineteen species were correlated with nitrogen oxides and 16 with bark pH, suggesting that transport-related pollution and bark acidity influence lichen and bryophyte distribution in London today. Lichens and bryophytes are responding to factors that influence human and environmental health in London. Biomonitoring therefore has a practical role to assess the effects of measures to improve London's air quality.     

CA-125 as a maternal serum marker for Down's syndrome in the first and second trimesters

CA-125, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), and human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) were determined in maternal serum in the first trimester from 14 women with a Down's syndrome fetus and 61 women with a healthy fetus. In the second trimester, 15 and 60 serum samples were determined from women with a Down's syndrome and a healthy fetus respectively. In both trimesters, maternal serum CA-125 was found to be elevated in Down's syndrome pregnancies compared with controls. Using discrimination functions, our preliminary results indicate that CA-125 is a better marker than AFP and HCG respectively for a Down's syndrome fetus in the first trimester and improves the detection rate in the second trimester.     

Experience with the use of LCA-modelling (EASEWASTE) in waste management.

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) models are becoming the principal decision support tools of waste management systems. This paper describes our experience with the use of EASEWASTE (Environmental Assessment of Solid Waste Systems and Technologies), a new computerized LCA-based model for integrated waste management. Our findings provide a quantitative understanding of waste management systems and may reveal consistent approaches to improve their environmental performances. EASEWASTE provides a versatile system modelling facility combined with a complete life-cycle impact assessment and in addition to the traditional impact categories addresses toxicity-related categories. New categories dealing with stored ecotoxicity and spoiled groundwater resources have been introduced. EASEWASTE has been applied in several studies, including full-scale assessments of waste management in Danish municipalities. These studies led to numerous modelling issues: the need of combining process-specific and input-specific emissions, the choice of a meaningful time horizon, the way of accounting for biological carbon emissions, the problem of stored ecotoxicity and aspects of crediting the waste management system with the savings inherent in avoided production of energy and materials. Interpretation of results showed that waste management systems can be designed in an environmentally sustainable manner where energy recovery processes lead to substantial avoidance of emissions and savings of resources.     

Live discrimination of Calanus glacialis and C. finmarchicus females: can we trust phenological differences?

Two key players in the Arctic and subarctic marine ecosystem are the calanoid copepods, Calanus finmarchicus and C. glacialis. Although morphologically very similar, these sibling species have different life cycles and roles in the Arctic pelagic marine ecosystem. Considering that the distribution of C. glacialis corresponds to Arctic water masses and C. finmarchicus to Atlantic water masses, the species are frequently used as climate indicators. Consequently, correct identification of the two species is essential if we want to understand climate-impacted changes on Calanus-dominated marine ecosystems such as the Arctic. Here, we present a novel morphological character (redness) to distinguish live females of C. glacialis and C. finmarchicus and compare it to morphological (prosome length) and genetic identification. The characters are tested on 300 live females of C. glacialis and C. finmarchicus from Disko Bay, western Greenland. Our analysis confirms that length cannot be used as a stand-alone criterion for separation. The results based on the new morphological character were verified genetically using a single mitochondrial marker (16S) and nuclear loci (six microsatellites and 12 InDels). The pigmentation criterion was also used on individuals (n = 89) from Young Sound fjord, northeast Greenland to determine whether the technique was viable in different geographical locations. Genetic markers based on mitochondrial and nuclear loci were corroborative in their identification of individuals and revealed no hybrids. Molecular identification confirmed that live females of the two species from Greenlandic waters, both East and West, can easily be separated by the red pigmentation of the antenna and somites of C. glacialis in contrast to the pale opaque antenna and somites of C. finmarchicus, confirming that the pigmentation criterion is valid for separation of the two species.