Emission reduction and profit-neutral permit allocations

The present paper addresses two policy objectives: to implement a market for pollution permits and to make regulation acceptable for businesses. Profit-neutral permit allocations are defined as the number of permits that the regulator should give for free so that post-regulation profits (i.e. a firm's profits in the products market plus the value of the allowances granted for free) are equal to pre-regulation profits. The proposed model is developed by assuming that firms use polluting technologies and compete “à la Cournot”. The paper demonstrates that a low number of free allowances is sufficient to meet these two goals. Moreover, the regulator can fully offset losses, even when the reduction in emissions is high, provided that the sectors concerned are not monopolies, both for isoelastic and linear demand functions.     

Good news for environmental self-regulation? Finding the right link

We investigate the stock market response to firm disclosure of positive environmental information and the link from that information to environmental outcomes. We classify environmental media releases by informational content and value relevance, and assess the abnormal stock returns of each type of event. While announcements of future environmental activities lead to the largest favorable stock market reactions, there is no guaranteed link from this type of information to environmental outcomes. Further analysis of the abnormal returns shows that the magnitude of the stock market reaction depends on firm financial characteristics across all event types rather than on firm environmental performance. Our results indicate that the ability for voluntary environmental information disclosure to induce environmental self-regulation is limited to the extent that firms are able to follow through with their announcements of planned environmental activities.     

Economic growth,international trade,and the depletion or conservation of renewable natural resources

Conservation of renewable natural resources and promotion of economic growth are both sustainable development goals. Here, we study the interdependency between economic growth, international trade, and the use of renewable natural resources—under alternative institutional settings of either open access or full property rights—in an endogenous growth model. We find that if the resource is depleted over time, consumption growth is reduced. Economic growth and international trade only impact resource use when the resource is harvested under full property rights. Then, widening international trade can lead countries to shift from conservation to depletion. Changes in the institutional setting of resource use in one country may have repercussions on trading partners. Our results indicate potential trade-offs between the sustainable development goals and imply that policies focusing on resource use or trade (e.g., international trade bans or certified trade) are not sufficient to prevent resource depletion.     

CEO education and corporate environmental footprint

We analyze the effect of CEO education on environmental decision-making. Using a unique sample of Danish firms from 1996 to 2012, we find that CEO education significantly improves firms' energy efficiency. We seek to derive causality using health shocks: the hospitalization of highly educated CEOs induces a drop in energy efficiency, whereas the hospitalization of less educated CEOs does not have any significant effect. Exploring the mechanisms at play, we show that our results are largely driven by advanced education in business degrees. Moreover, we show that CEO education is associated with greater environmental awareness: highly educated CEOs exhibit greater concerns for climate change, as measured by a survey of social preferences, and drive more environmentally efficient cars. Taken together, our findings suggest that education shapes managerial styles giving rise to greater sustainability in corporate actions.     

Study of oil-water partitioning of a chemical dispersant using an acute bioassay with marine crustaceans

The toxicity of seawater dispersions of a chemical dispersant to two marine crustaceans was investigated in the presence and absence of various quantities of a non-toxic mineral oil. From the results and a physical-chemical partitioning analysis, a limiting value of the oil-water partition coefficient of the toxic compounds is deduced suggesting that essentially all of the toxic compounds in the dispersant will partition into solution in water following dispersant application to an oil spill. This conclusion simplifies interpretation and prediction of the toxic effects of a dispersed oil spill.The combined bioassay-partitioning procedure may have applications to the study of the toxicity of other complex mixtures such as industrial effluents.     

石墨烯负载铁锰氧化物活化过一硫酸盐降解金橙G

利用水热法制备了rG-MnFe_2O_4活化剂,通过TEM、XRD、FT-IR、Raman等手段对活化剂进行了系统表征,通过其对偶氮染料OG的降解实验评价了rG-MnFe_2O_4活化PMS的效果,同时考察了PMS浓度、rG-MnFe_2O_4投加量、初始pH、Cl~-浓度对OG降解效果的影响.结果表明,当rG-MnFe_2O_4投加量为0.3 g·L-1,n(PMS)∶n(OG)=40∶1时,rG-MnFe_2O_4活化PMS的效果显著,反应27 min时,OG降解率为100%,并且随PMS浓度、rG-MnFe_2O_4投加量的提高,OG降解效率明显增加.初始pH对OG降解有较大影响,pH=5.00时效果最好.Cl~-对活化降解OG具有促进作用,Cl-浓度越高,OG降解得越快.r G-MnFe_2O_4在重复使用5次时仍具有较好活化性能.通过紫外可见光谱和气相色谱-质谱(GC/MS)对OG降解过程进行分析,表明OG分子中的萘环结构和偶氮键均被破坏,并检测出主要降解产物有对硝基苯酚和邻苯二甲酸;且rG-MnFe_2O_4/PMS降解体系对染料OG具有一定的矿化率.     

台风“杜鹃”降水δ18O的云雨区效应初探

我国东南地区台风降水显著,但对这种强降水事件中的稳定同位素研究较少,限制了对短时间极端降水稳定同位素变化过程和影响因素的认识。论文根据2015年9月28日至29日第21号台风“杜鹃”两次登陆（台湾宜兰、福建莆田）前后台北、福州两地气象数据和降水稳定同位素数据,分析了此次台风的降水稳定同位素变化特征及影响因素。台风期间,两地降水δ¹⁸O波动范围为-3.4‰~-15.0‰,变化幅度达11.6‰。台风前端和尾端两地降水同位素值相对偏正,平均值为-4‰~-6‰而台风中端两地降水同位素值极其偏负,平均值分别为-12.4‰和 -13.2‰。台风前端与尾端降水同位素值偏正,水汽受蒸发效应影响明显;而台风中端降水δ¹⁸O值极端偏负主要受“云雨区效应”的影响,即云雨区气流急剧上升,水汽在过饱和环境中快速凝结降落,受动力分馏作用小,降水δ¹⁸O极端偏负。结合降水δ¹⁸O变化特征、过量氘及模拟水汽轨迹,得到台风“杜鹃”降水主要的水汽来源为西太平洋海域。     

取代芳烃对呆鲦鱼急性毒性的QSAR研究

应用密度泛函方法(DFT)在B3LYP/6-311G**水平上全优化计算25个取代芳烃的量子化学参数,结合疏水性参数与化合物对呆鲦鱼的急性毒性进行定量构效关系研究(QSAR)。经逐步回归筛选变量后,所建多元线性回归方程的相关系数R及去一法交互检验复相关系数R2cv分别为0.967和0.907。用预测集样本进行了外部预测,所得外部预测样本复相关系数R2ext和外部预测集交互检验Q2ext分别为0.881和0.836。模型结果显示:分子疏水性参数logP较大时具有较大的脂溶性,化合物的毒性较大;取代基的吸电子能力越强,苯环的正电性越大,化合物的毒性越大。     

超声辅助纳米铁降解酸性红G的实验研究

通过硼氢化纳还原法制备了铁纳米颗粒,并用十二烷基硫酸钠对其进行保护。所得铁纳米颗粒大小在13nm左右,体心立方相。对比了在机械搅拌和超声辅助条件下纳米铁对酸性红G的降解率,超声条件下纳米铁和微米铁对酸性红G的降解率,以及纳米铁投加量、pH值对酸性红G降解率的影响。结果表明,超声辅助下,pH=6～7时,4min内纳米铁对酸性红G有较高的降解率。机理分析表明超声辅助条件下纳米铁对酸性红G的降解主要是超声分散下纳米铁的还原作用得到提高以及纳米铁氧化产物的絮凝作用。     

浅谈3G在防震减灾中的应用

通过对比第一代和第二代与第三代移动通信系统的特点,总结出第三代移动通信的优点,并将其优点应用到防震救灾事业中,改善防震减灾系统的设计,使防震减灾步入一个崭新的3G阶段,提高防震减灾工作的有效性和实用性.