Study abroad in support of education for sustainability: a New Zealand case study

This article presents a case study of an existing study abroad program to New Zealand interested in infusing sustainability themes into the curriculum. The review of the program is set in the context of United Nations Education for Sustainable Development goals and the role of sustainability in institutions of higher education. The author was an invited external observer and suggests that study abroad programs in support of sustainability education provide transformative learning experiences that invest in the well being of both people and places. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

The use (and abuse) of the new environmental paradigm scale over the last 30 years: A meta-analysis

This paper reports a meta-analysis of studies using the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) Scale over the last 30 years. A review of 69 studies from 36 countries (including 58,279 participants from 139 samples) shows that there is considerable variation in the way the NEP Scale is used, particularly with regards to the number of items used and the number of points on the Likert scale employed. Results from weighted regression analyses reveals that variations in sample type and scale length have a significant effect on NEP scores. In particular, environmentalist and white-collar samples scored significantly higher on the NEP Scale than nationally or regionally representative samples, while blue-collar samples scored significantly lower; and participants scored higher on 6-item versions of the scale than on the revised 15-item version, and lower on versions of the scale containing 5, 7, 8 or 10 items. Implications of this research for the comparability of previous studies using the NEP Scale are discussed and guidelines for future research are presented.     

The World on a Collision Course and the Need for a New Economy

The first part of the paper is an attempt to demonstrate that what we are going through at the present time is not just an economic-financial crisis, but a crisis of humanity. It seems that for the first time in human history several crises converge to simultaneously reach their maximum level of tension. The dominant economic model is to a great degree responsible for the world’s collision course. Hence a number of myths that sustain the model are listed and analyzed. It is argued that a new economy, coherent with the problematiques of the twenty first century, needs urgently to be devised. The second part proposes the foundations for a new economy based on five fundamental postulates that allow the construction of transdisciplinary, holistic, and systemic visions to adequately understand the interdependence of all the elements that sustain life. It is stressed that it is no longer acceptable that Universities still teach economic theories of the nineteenth century in order to tackle twenty first century problems that have no precedence.     

基于模糊马尔可夫链状原理的灾害预测——以新亚欧大陆桥新疆段为例

根据新亚欧大陆桥新疆段近40年灾害统计资料,基于模糊马尔可夫链状预测的方法与原理,通过模糊状态的划分和模糊运算,根据隶属度最大原则,确定所属的状态,对新疆段受损区段数进行了预测,预测准确率为75％,取得了预期的效果。     

新亚欧大陆桥新疆段风沙流活动特性及停积规律

通过对新亚欧大陆桥新疆段不同区段风沙流实测资料的分析,探讨了砾漠区和沙漠区的风沙流活动特性及其停积规律.研究表明,风沙流随风力条件、下垫面状况而变化,其搬运能力与风力大小呈正相关;高程与含沙量(%)对数尺度之间具有良好的线性关系,含沙量随高度增加成指数规律衰减;砾漠区沙粒粗大,在2.0m以下高程其含量随高度增大而明显增大,沙漠区风沙流物质成分以细粒为主(占71%);物质运动以跃移为主,易在低路堤边坡,半填、半挖路基和浅路堑处沉降积沙;在风沙流运动方向与线路走向的夹角＜30°时,积沙厚度较小,而当其＞45°时,积沙量随夹角增大呈明显增多的趋势.     

春节除夕燃放烟花爆竹对环境空气质量影响分析

结合2003—2014年南京城区春节除夕前后主要空气污染物监测数据,分析烟花爆竹集中燃放时空气污染指数及PM10、SO2、NO2质量浓度的变化趋势。指出除夕燃放烟花爆竹会引起PM10、SO2、NO2质量浓度上升,在大气扩散条件不佳的情况下影响了环境空气质量。建议在大中城市城区采取适当的禁放措施,并加快研制安全环保型的烟花爆竹替代产品。     

天津滨海新区大气预警模型体系的构建

通过对多污染物种、多空间尺度范围、多时间尺度时效的动力-化学耦合模式预报预警系统的合理构建,通过科学的后期数据处理模块,实现对大气环境质量的预警预报,以期为天津滨海新区环境管理与监督提供科学的依据。     

蛭石在除氮技术中的应用研究

研究了蛭石在实验条件下去除污水中氨氮的方法,以及污水中pH、温度、浓度、蛭石目数等对去除氨氮的影响,为蛭石作为一种新型填料的应用提供了基础数据和理论依据。     

The unsustainability of exurban development in London and New York: calculating transport CO2 emissions

London and New York have often been hailed for their sustainable planning practices. However, when one focuses on the entire city region, there is ever-increasing car-dependent development. This paper focuses on the exurban region of the two cities investigating transport-created CO₂ emissions. The research is based on the analysis of data of the National Travel Surveys of Great Britain and the USA through a quantification of personal travel and a top-down estimation of CO₂ emissions. It is the exurban region that accounts for the vast majority of CO₂ emissions: 77% for London and 87% for New York. In the wider region for both cities there is a policy vacuum and dearth of regional planning mechanisms to deliver policies to reduce CO₂ emissions. The paper argues that transport needs to be planned at the city-regional scale.     

Historic preservation,significance, and age value: A comparative phenomenology of historic Charleston and the nearby new-urbanist community of I'On

While the age of physical environments is the central tenet of historic preservation, there is a lack of empirical evidence about how everyday people actually value, perceive, and experience age as an intrinsic part of an urban environment. In order to ameliorate this knowledge deficit, this study employs phenomenology to understand the lived experience of being in a “new” versus an “old” or “historic” urban residential environment. The new environment is the I'On new urbanist development in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, and the old environment is the location of the United States' first historic district in Charleston, South Carolina. These locations are approximately within five miles of each other. In both places, the physical characteristics of the built environment are remarkably similar in density, form, layout, and design, but the age is dramatically different. Through photo elicitation techniques and interviews, the results of this study reveal that residents of historic Charleston and I'On value their built environments in remarkably similar ways. Surprisingly, elements that evoke a strong sense of attachment tend to be landscape features, such as gates, fountains, trees, and gardens rather than buildings. The informants valued the “mystery” that they felt was part of the landscape and which consisted of layered elements such as fences, gates, and paths, such that these features (including buildings) had to be “discovered.” Lastly, the informants strongly valued landscapes that showed “people care” through regular maintenance. The essential difference in people's experience and valuation of the new environment (I'On) and the old environment (historic Charleston) is in the older environment's ability to instill creative fantasies in the minds of the informants based on a hypothetical past of their own creation. The informants in I'On did not share these kinds of meanings.