Analysis on reasons for the Yellow River's dry-up and its  eco-environmental impacts

The Yellow River, or Huanghe, is one of the most important river in China. It is the major water resources for north and northwest China. Since 1972, the Yellow River's dry-up has occurred frequently and become even more year by year. Except the huge loss to social life and economic development, the Yellow River's dry-up brings about great impacts to eco-environment. This paper analyzed the reasons and impacts from multi-aspect: effects of climate change, influence of human activities and impacts to delta's eco-environment, aquatic life resources, agricultural eco- environment, water pollution and flood prevention as well.     

Bringing the Heat Home: Television Spots about Local Impacts Reduce Global Warming Denialism

ABSTRACT

Efforts to educate the general public about global warming and the potential policy solutions that could mitigate its effects have relied on the diffusion of facts. But, cognitive scientists have documented that psychologically distant events like global warming elicit less concern and motivation to act relative to immediate, proximal and certain events. This paper documents a quasi-experiment that tested the effect on attitudes of a television campaign that emphasized the temporally, geographically and socially proximal impacts of global warming on the ecosystems and business activity of a historically conservative area of the United States. The campaign aired on one cable provider. Subscribers of that and of competing providers in the same zip-codes were polled after the campaign. Respondents exposed to the campaign were more likely to believe that global warming is happening, to accept the scientific consensus, to be more concerned about impacts and more supportive of policy solutions.     

An attempt to recover economic losses from decadal changes in two lagoon systems of Sri Lanka through a newly patented mangrove product

Kahandamodara and Kalametiya are two estuarine lagoons located within about 12 km distance along the Southern coast of Sri Lanka. According to a socio-economic survey, both lagoons have been moderately to high saline water bodies and the latter was an important center of prawn fishery until the late 1960s. Two irrigation projects upstream (Udawalawe irrigation scheme and Muruthawela Wewa), which came into operation in 1967 and 1968 respectively, increased freshwater inflows to these two lagoons and altered flora, fauna, and water quality, with a decline of lagoon fishery as a result. At the same time, the increase in freshwater favorised the Mangrove Apple Sonneratia caseolaris to expand spontaneously. Following many hectares of vegetation increase of this species, our study focused on recovering the economic loss of fisheries decline by using new ethnobotanic information on this species. We found that the pulp of the fruit of the Mangrove Apple is tasty and can be used to prepare a fruit drink. However, it has not been commercialised, or even practiced widely at homes, due to the fact that numerous small seeds in the fruit release certain phenolic compounds when damaged, giving a bad colour and an astringent taste to the pulp. We developed a method to get the fruit pulp from the Mangrove Apple minimising the addition of phenolic compounds. This fruit pulp was then used to produce ice cream and fruit drinks, and the whole procedure has been patented in Sri Lanka for the favour of the local people. Apparently this is a novel mangrove product reported for the first time in mangrove ethnobotany. In addition, analysis of the fruit pulp of the S. caseolaris for nutritional composition revealed that it is very rich in phosphorus and dietary fiber, indicating that these new products may have an even higher potential as a supplementary food. Its use as a health food and as a commercialised eco-product is expected to bring new gains in spite of the former ecosystem and fishery decrease. It is however not known to which extent these novel ethnobiological/socio-economical uses outbalance functions lost by ecosystem degradation.     

How Aware Are Other Nations of Climate Change? Analyzing Germans’ Second-Order Climate Change Beliefs About Chinese,US American and German People

ABSTRACT

What people believe about the beliefs of other people – second-order beliefs – has been acknowledged as a key factor that shapes public support for international climate policy. However, very little is known about their origins. Based on data from an online survey (n?=?935), we analyzed how German citizens assess the climate change awareness in their own nation as compared to those of the US and China. Even if the public climate change awareness in the US and China factually differs, we found that German citizens equivalently rate both nations similar and much lower than their own, a finding which can be explained with social identity processes and “in-group”/“out-group” biases. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrate that the attention individuals pay towards television and social media predict second-order beliefs on climate change awareness positively, while attention to print media is a negative predictor.     

山东省矿产资源可持续利用面临的困境及解决途径

山东省正处于工业化的中期阶段。矿产资源可持续利用面临重大挑战。本文分析了我国矿业大省——山东省的矿产资源开发利用存在的问题。提出山东省提高矿产资源的保障能力、促进矿产资源可持续利用的对策建议。     

Technological Progress, Structural Change and China＇s Energy Efficiency

China has witnessed rapid economic development since 1978, and during the time, energy production and consumption developed at a tremendous speed as well. Energy efficiency which can be measured by energy consumption per unit of GDP, however, experienced continuous decrease. Theoretically, the change of energy efficiency can be attributed to industry structural change and technological change. In order to explain the transformation of Chinese energy efficiency, we adopt logarithmic mean Divisia index techniques to decompose changes in energy intensity in the period of 1994-2005. We find that technological change is the dominant contributor in the decline of energy intensity, but the contribution has declined since 2001. The change in industry structure has decreased the energy intensity before 1998, but raised the intensity after 1998. Decomposed technological effects for all sectors indicate that technological progresses in high energy consuming industries such as raw chemical materials and chemical products, smelting and pressing of ferrous metals, manufacture of non-metallic mineral products and household contribute are the principal drivers of China＇s declining energy intensity.     

基于多时相遥感数据的典型区生态格局变化分析

利用1985、2000、2013年遥感影像提取的土地覆盖数据,通过景观格局指数、动态度计算、转移矩阵等,分析1985—2013年我国典型地区各类型生态系统景观格局及其动态变化特征、生态系统相互转化时空变化特征等,揭示1985—2013年生态环境格局变化的特点和规律:一级分类生态系统综合变化率,赣江、闽江、白龙江和岷江上游流域分别为4.7%、3.9%、3.3%和1.7%,生态系统变化强度1985—2000年较缓,2000—2013年更剧烈。1985—2013年典型区生态系统的主要转化方向具有持续性和双向性特征,岷江、白龙江和赣江上游流域退耕还林还草政策效果明显,出现较高比例的耕地转为森林和草地;面积占67.4%生态系统类型变化与耕地生态系统和人工表面生态系统变化有关;生态系统变化具有明显的区域差异,生态变化主要表现为沿主要河流谷地的线状延伸,主要城镇居民点附近生态系统类型变化较为突出,人类活动是典型地区生态系统类型格局变化的主要驱动力;典型区尤其是敏感区应加大退耕还林还草政策,减少人类经济活动,降低洪水泥石流灾害发生的概率和程度。     

The Belt and Road Initiative and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: seeking linkages for global environmental governance

ABSTRACT

Global environmental cooperation serves as an important part in the Chinese ideal of building a Community with a Shared Future for all Human Beings. The report of 19th CPC National Congress indicates that China is committed to proactive mitigation under the Paris Agreement and further participating in global environmental governance under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and both of which are largely integrated to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). BRI are also closely linked with South–South environmental and climate cooperation proposed by China from previous UN summits. Based on shared ideas, intersected agendas, and compatible governance approaches, BRI and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development grow increasingly relevant and they might form synergies based on increasingly interactive relations. In sum, seeking and intensifying the linkages between BRI and 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs) could address global environmental governance deficits and enhance cooperation among nations.