Assessing stress response of Stylophora pistillata towards oil and phosphate pollution in the Gulf of Aqaba,using molecular and biochemical markers

Crude oil (from oil terminal) and raw phosphate (from phosphate port) pollution are responsible for the lowered health conditions of coral reefs at their vicinity in the Jordanian coast of the Gulf of Aqaba. Both in situ incubations and ex situ laboratory exposure experiments were used to study the effects of those pollutants on corals, by using molecular and biochemical biomarkers in the coral Stylophora pistillata. For ex situ part of the experiment, crude oil and raw phosphate were added to a final concentration of 500?ppm for both pollutants. The DNA damage was assessed by Comet assay, while biochemical stress markers were reassessed by lipid peroxidation (LPO) test. Although the corals looked healthy from outside, the use of stress biomarkers indicated that they are under high pressure at the cellular level. The corals incubated with oil and phosphate had more DNA damage and LPO in comparison with the control samples. The results obtained suggest that the use of stress biomarkers can be used as important prognostic tools for examining the sub-lethal stress on corals before their death.     

Differential blood counting in fish as a non-destructive biomarker of water contamination exposure

Differential white blood cell counting was performed on blood from the fish species Oreochromis niloticus and was used as an in situ indicator of the species’ exposure to contamination. Ten young fish were collected in an area influenced by the discharge of effluents and from a fish farm (control group). The fish were anesthetized and caudal puncture was used to collect the blood. Differential white blood cell counting was performed, as well as the counting of total leukocytes and thrombocytes (in 2000 cells). Physicochemical parameters of the water from both sites were analyzed. The water from the polluted area was found to have high conductivity and low levels of dissolved oxygen, factors that indicate poor environmental quality. Fish collected from the polluted site presented higher percentages of eosinophils and monocytes and fewer thrombocytes because of exposure to pollution and hypoxic conditions. The differential white blood cell count represents a suitable biomarker of environmental health and provides a tool for biomonitoring water quality.     

开放经济、环保财政支出与污染治理——来自中国省级与行业面板数据的经验证据

首先按照各省环保财政支出占GDP比重与按主成分分析法计算的地方环境污染物排放综合指数的排名情况把中国30个省份分成两个区域,区域1环保财政支出污染治理效应较强,区域2环保财政支出污染治理效应较弱。区域1包括北京、海南等14个省市,区域2包括天津、上海等16个省市。其次基于2007—2014年中国省级和行业面板数据,分析开放经济、环保财政支出对污染治理的影响。最后借鉴门限回归模型检验开放经济是否存在环保财政支出与污染治理的门槛效应。结果显示:(1)环境污染物排放存在区域差异和行业差异,区域1呈现出开放程度和污染物排放双低的特征,而区域2则表现为双高特征。制造业、电力、煤气及水的生产和供应业污染物排放较高,采掘业污染物排放年均增长速度最快。(2)样本期内省级和行业面板数据均表明开放经济与环境污染物排放显著负相关,对外开放不是助推环境污染的原因。(3)中国环保财政支出与环境污染物排放显著负相关,环保财政支出具有显著的污染治理效应。(4)开放经济对环保财政支出的污染治理效应具有门槛效应,当进口和出口贸易总额高于门槛值-1.221、-1.016时环保财政支出的污染治理效应很难发挥。(5)以进、出口贸易总额为门槛变量时,有107个观测值低于门槛值,占总观测值的44.58%,其中有59个位于区域1,占55.14%。鉴于此应继续加大环境保护财政支出,进一步提升环保财政专项支出在GDP中所占比重,保持适度的对外开放,优化能源消费结构和实现产业结构升级,全面改善环境质量,提升开放经济下环保财政支出的污染治理效应。     

中国FDI环境效应的再检验

改革开放以来,外商直接投资(FDI)的涌入为中国经济发展注入了新活力,并成为中国经济高速增长的重要引擎之一。然而,随着康菲石油渤海漏油事故、江苏启东王子造纸排污和阿玛尼污染投诉等涉外污染事件报道频出,学术界对于FDI涌入可能带来的负面环境效应表现出一定担忧。现有文献多聚焦于整体层面的FDI环境效应检验,而对其区域差异及原因产生机制的系统探究并不多见。为此,本文从理论判断和命题推演出发,利用2003—2014年中国省际面板数据,以改进熵值法拟合环境污染综合指数,并构建普通面板模型,实证检验了FDI流入对中国环境污染的影响及其区域差异。结果表明,总体而言,"污染光环"假说在中国基本成立,即FDI流入在一定程度上改善了中国环境质量,但不同地区FDI的环境效应有所不同,其主要表现为沿海和内陆地区FDI具有显著的"污染光环"效应,且前者强于后者,而沿边地区FDI具有不明显的"污染天堂"效应。在此基础上,构造面板门槛模型,进一步系统考察了FDI对中国环境污染影响的4种主要吸收能力因素的门槛效应。门槛回归结果表明,FDI对中国环境污染的影响显著存在基于经济发展、环境规制、人力资本和金融发展水平的双门槛效应。经济发展、人力资本和金融发展水平越高,FDI的"污染光环"效应越明显,而适度的环境规制才更有利于FDI环境技术溢出的发挥。基于此,本文建议应进一步全方位地提高对外开放水平,一如既往地积极引进并监督FDI;同时地方政府也需认清地区发展的不平衡性,进而采取差异化的引资政策。     

Think globally,act locally: neighbourhood pollution and the future of the earth

Each year governments and industry around the globe spend billions of dollars in search of treatments and cures for diseases that shorten lives, which often means gadgets, implants, radiation and pills. These “cures”, do not get to the root of the problem. Perhaps it is time for us to adjust our thinking to be more proactive instead of reactive in public health. Perhaps we need to consider confronting environmental pollution of air, soil and water at a local level. As the Physicians for Social Responsibility point out, we should be “preventing what we cannot cure”. One such preventive measure is ensuring that our communities, including our poor inner-city neighbourhoods, enjoy a clean environment. We challenge local and national policy-makers to respond to the global call and to take action to address environmental toxins; to take local action to ameliorate the pollution of the air, water and soil in so many of our nation’s neighbourhoods. A person’s neighbourhood, and the proximity of dangerous environmental contaminants within it, is a powerful predictor of how long s/he will live. While situations like the poisoning of the water in Flint, Michigan have gotten some attention, they are generally treated as the exception rather than a reflection of real environmental hazards that exist in the west. Moreover we wonder why more endemic issues of neighbourhood environmental contamination that shorten human lives are not a priority for local action or that it is not linked to disproportionate production of greenhouse gases that cause climate change/warming/chaos.     

Making cities resilient to climate change: identifying “win–win” interventions

Urbanisation is truly a global phenomenon. Starting at 39% in 1980, the urbanisation level rose to 52% in 2011. Ongoing rapid urbanisation has led to increase in urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Urban climate change risks have also increased with increase in climate-induced extreme weather events and more low-income urban dwellers living in climate sensitive locations. Despite increased emissions, including GHGs and heightened climate change vulnerability, climate mitigation and adaptation actions are rare in the cities of developing countries. Cities are overwhelmed with worsening congestion, air pollution, crime, waste management, and unemployment problems. Lack of resources and capacity constraints are other factors that discourage cities from embarking on climate change mitigation and adaptation pathways. Given the multitude of problems faced, there is simply no appetite for stand-alone urban climate change mitigation and adaptation policies and programmes. Urban mitigation and adaptation goals will have to be achieved as co-benefits of interventions targeted at solving pressing urban problems and challenges. The paper identifies administratively simple urban interventions that can help cities solve some of their pressing service delivery and urban environmental problems, while simultaneously mitigating rising urban GHG emissions and vulnerability to climate change.     

Collaborative approaches to local climate change and clean energy initiatives in the USA and England

This paper analyses how 10 localities in the USA and England, recognised as leaders in clean energy and climate action, have used collaborative approaches to develop local climate change plans and energy conservation, efficiency, and renewable energy initiatives. It examines these planning and policy-making processes in the context of Margerum's [2008. A typology of collaboration efforts in environmental management. Environmental Management, 41 (4), 487–500] typology of “action”, “organizational”, and “policy-level” collaborations, as well as Gray's [1989. Collaborating: finding common ground for multiparty problems. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass] classification of collaboration in the “problem-setting”, “direction-setting”, and “implementation” phases. We conducted interviews with local elected officials, municipal staff, energy professionals, and citizen volunteers in each community, supplemented with an analysis of their adopted energy, climate change, and land-use plans. We find that despite the different government structures and political contexts between the two countries, there was a surprising amount of commonality in how the case study localities used collaborative planning to develop local climate plans and clean energy initiatives. These processes were most often initiated by local elected officials and/or high-level staff members, and then carried out in collaboration with local third-sector organisations and other community stakeholders. In the USA, collaboration was strongest at the policy level and in the direction-setting phase, with the distinguishing feature that citizen advisory boards or stakeholder working groups often took a more active role in shaping local plans and policies. The English localities had some of those same types of collaborations, but were more likely to also employ action collaboration, in the implementation phase, in which third-sector organisations coordinated with the locality to directly provide clean energy services.     

乌鲁木齐市不同区域大气降尘中重金属污染及来源分析

为进一步了解城市不同区域间大气降尘中重金属含量及其差异性,沿城市走向梯度布设降尘采样点采集样品。采用电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱(ICP-AES)仪测定样品中Cu、Cr、Mn、Fe、Ni、Zn、Cd、Pb和As等重金属含量,并计算富集因子来判断不同区域间的污染源类型,通过因子分析方法探讨污染的来源。结果显示,所测重金属元素中除Mn外,均受到人为源的影响,且十分严重。从贡献率来看,不同区域间第一因子的贡献率虽有差异,但均为来自土壤的风沙扬尘造成;第二因子的贡献率也不尽相同,主要是燃煤产生的污染;第三因子出现了差异,市南区和市北区主要是受金属冶炼的影响,而市中区的影响可能来自垃圾焚烧;市南区未出现第四因子,而市中区和市北区的污染源也不相同。分析表明,城市大气降尘污染依然严重,做好防控风沙和建筑扬尘,减少煤炭消耗,调整能源结构和产业布局是整体减少大气降尘的关键。