Understanding why consumers in China switch between wild,farmed, and synthetic bear bile products

An important rationale for legally farmed and synthetic wildlife products is that they reduce illegal, wild-sourced trade by supplying markets with sustainable alternatives. For this to work, more established illegal-product consumers must switch to legal alternatives than new legal-product consumers switch to illegal wild products. Despite the widespread debate on the magnitude and direction of switching, studies among actual consumers are lacking. We used an anonymous online survey of 1421 traditional Chinese medicine consumers in China to investigate switching among legal farmed, synthetic, and illegal wild bear bile. We examined the past consumption behavior, applied a discrete choice experiment framed within worsening hypothetical disease scenarios, and used latent class models to investigate groups with shared preferences. Bear bile consumers (86% respondents) were wealthier, more likely to have family who consumed bile, and less knowledgeable about bile treatments than nonconsumers. Consumer preferences were heterogenous, but most consumer preferences switched between bile types as disease worsened. We identified five distinct latent classes within our sample: law-abiding consumers (34% respondents), who prefer legal products and were unlikely to switch; two all-natural consumer groups (53%), who dislike synthetics but may switch between farmed and wild; and two nonconsumer groups (12%), who prefer not to buy bile. People with past experience of bile consumption had different preferences than those without. Willingness to switch to wild products was related to believing they were legal, although the likelihood of switching was mediated by preferences for cheaper products sold in legal, familiar places. We found that consumers of wild bile may switch to legal alternatives, given the availability of a range of products, whereas legal-product consumers may switch to illegal products if the barriers to doing so are small. Understanding preferences that promote or impede switching should be a key consideration when attempting to predict consumer behavior in complex wildlife markets.     

Engaging an ecovillage and measuring its ecological footprint

As ecovillages present themselves as models of low-carbon living measuring the Ecological Footprint (EF) of an ecovillage serves both to validate that claim and to examine the component features of how the EF is achieved. This article examines the first measurement of the EF of Ireland’s only ecovillage, situated in the village of Cloughjordan in county Tipperary. The objectives here were to measure the EF of the ecovillage at the household scale and then to use the EF to provide meaningful feedback and reflective learning on human carbon intensity to the ecovillage residents. Various methods were applied in this action research to achieve high levels of engagement and potent communication of what could be learnt from the EF. This article places a particular focus on the necessary adaptation of an original EF method, on how it was implemented in the ecovillage, on the results obtained and on how these were communicated to the residents. The bottom-up component EF method samples consumption data at source and in so doing appoints consumption reflection and responsibility in ways the more remote compound method can not. The strategic combination of this specific quality with co-creation method aims to meaningfully engage and motivate a settlement to reduce its carbon intensity. According to the methodology, the ecovillage residents overshoot the fair earth share by 10% needing 1.1 planets to sustain their lifestyles. It is planned that subsequent to this intervention future measurements will show whether the overshoot has reduced.     

武汉城市湖泊水环境现状及综合整治途径

近十几年来,随着人口的增长,现代工业和农业的发展,湖泊的老化过程受到人类活动的影响而大大加速。过量营养物质的富集,使水体产生了一系列的变化。结合武汉市湖泊水环境现状分析,指出了武汉市湖泊当前存在的三个突出的问题,即污染严重、湖泊萎缩和水量锐减、湖泊生态系统遭破坏。在此基础上,提出了一套适合武汉湖泊整治的综合途径,具体包括以下四个方面的内容：①管理组织模式与政策法规;②提高工程的科技含量,重点实施湖泊生态修复工程;③发展水经济,形成新的产业增长点;④加强水文化建设,提高市民的环保意识。武汉市湖泊水环境作为修复对象,由此形成的适于国内城市严重富营养景观水体整治的技术和管理体系,具有十分重要的现实意义和推广应用价值。     

Introduction to the special issue of Ecological Modelling: “Advances in Modeling Estuarine and Coastal Ecosystems: Approaches, Validation, and Applications”

The development and application of ecosystem models in estuarine and coastal systems has grown exponentially over the past four decades. Models have become ensconced as major tools for both heuristic study of ecosystem structure and function as well as for informing management decisions, particularly with respect to cultural eutrophication. In recent years an ever-expanding toolbox of modeling approaches is being offered to complement traditional methods. This expansion of modeling in estuarine and coastal science was exemplified by four sessions devoted to modeling at the 2007 biennial conference of the Estuarine Research Federation in Providence, RI. We felt the time was right to propose a special session of Ecological Modelling to synthesize talks from these sessions to present the state of the art in coastal and estuarine modeling. The collection of papers contained in this special issue presents a diversity of traditional and novel modeling approaches, methods for assessing model validity and predictability, and the utility of models in management applications. We believe that together these papers provide an excellent overview of current approaches to modeling estuarine hydrodynamics, water quality, and ecosystem/food web dynamics, applications of complex and relatively simple modeling approaches, applications in both deep and shallow coastal systems, goals relevant for both heuristic and management applications, and perspectives based on traditional mechanistic model development as well as more recent alternative approaches.     

基于空间信息技术的城市环境时空调控范式研究

城市环境－生态系统是高度复杂的时空复合动力学系统。通过对城市环境问题的空间动力学机制分析后,提出城市环境可持续发展时空调控的层次途径,并构造了融合遥感、地理信息系统等空间信息技术、环境建模技术、决策支持系统、人工智能等技术的城市生态－环境系统时空调控的体系框架,为城市环境管理及环境空间决策提供新的理论范。     

环境基础设施市场化运作下的政府管理

论述了环境基础设施投资运行机制的市场化改革，是解决目前环境基础设施供需矛盾尖锐、投入不足、效率低下的一条重要途径。认为环境基础设施的特殊性决定了其在市场化运作中，政府加强管理具有重要意义。结合城市给排水和垃圾处理设施的特点，提出并讨论了在市场化运作的背景下，政府管理城市环境基础设施的主要目标、内容及政策体系。     

Assessment of risks, implications, and opportunities of waterborne neurotoxic pesticides

Pesticides are a well-known family of chemicals that have contaminated water systems globally. Four common subfamilies of pesticides include organochlorines, organophosphates, pyrethroids, and carbamate insecticides which have been shown to adversely affect the human nervous system. Studies have shown a link between pesticide exposure and decreased viability, proliferation, migration, and differentiation of murine neural stem cells. Besides human exposure directly through water systems, additional factors such as pesticide bioaccumulation, biomagnification and potential synergism due to co-exposure to other environmental contaminants must be considered. A possible avenue to investigate the molecular mechanisms and biomolecules impacted by the various classes of pesticides includes the field of -omics. Discovery of the precise molecular mechanisms behind pesticide-mediated neurodegenerative disorders may facilitate development of targeted therapeutics. Likewise, discovery of pesticide biodegradation pathways may enable novel approaches for water system bioremediation using genetically engineered microorganisms. In this mini-review, we discuss recently established harmful impacts of various categories of pesticides on the nervous system and the application of -omics field for discovery, validation, and mitigation of pesticide neurotoxicity.     

论环境保护行政,法律和经济手段

介绍了环境保护行政手段，法律手段和经济手段的概念和主要内容，阐述了在市场经济体制下这三类手段的重要性及时代内涵，并就我国这三类手段的丰富和运用提出了建议。     

天祝县在地震应急救援中的经验方法研究

本文分析研究了1990年10月20日天祝、景泰6．2级地震与1996年6月1日天祝、古浪5．4级地震前后，天祝县在防震减灾与地震应急救援体系中的实践经验和方法，以及产生的社会与经济效益．天祝县在地震应急救援中的措施和做法曾被甘肃省、国家地震局、武威地区所肯定，在巴黎中法地震科技合作交流会上，原国家地震局方樟顺局长以此作为典型介绍，得到了法国地震科学家的高度评价与赞赏．在破坏性地震还威胁人类的今天，尤其是在新的地震活动期内，面临着地震破坏的严重现实，研究总结天祝县在地震应急救援中的经验方法，指导各级政府完善防震减灾对策和应急预案，具有重要的实际意义。