Millennium Consumption Goals (MCGs) for Rio+20 and beyond: A practical step towards global sustainability

In January 2011, the idea of Millennium Consumption Goals (MCGs) was first proposed at the United Nations, because unsustainable patterns of consumption and production have led to multiple problems threatening the future of humanity. The global economy driven by consumption already uses natural resources equivalent to almost 1.5 planets earth, with the world's richest 1.4 billion consuming almost 85% of global output, which is over 60 fold the consumption of the poorest 1.4 billion. The consumption of the rich is not only ecologically unsustainable, but also “crowding out” the prospects of the poor and exacerbating inequalities that increase the risk of conflict and global unrest. The MCGs provide an innovative future vision and complement the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that aim to help the world's poor. First, the MCGs seek to address the issues of global poverty and inequality by ensuring that the basic consumption needs of over 2 billion poor people are met. Next, the MCGs will provide benchmarks for the consumption of the rich, which will reduce the burden on the world's natural resource base. Instead of viewing the affluent as a problem, the novel approach of the MCGs would persuade them to contribute to the solution without having to reduce their quality of life. The MCGs apply even‐handedly to the rich in all countries. The concept enjoys broad support worldwide and is being promoted by a global coalition called the MCG Initiative (MCGI). A bottom‐up approach has already been started by many pioneering individuals, communities, organizations, firms, cities, regions and nations. They prefer not to wait for broad multilateral agreements and are acting now, to voluntarily pursue their own specific MCGs. A parallel top‐down path is being pursued through mandatory agreements at the United Nations/international level, starting with the Rio+20 Earth Summit and beyond. The MCGs fit in with other major UN initiatives like Agenda 21, the MDGs, green economy, SCP and the Sustainable Development Goals.     

Science, Policy, Stakeholders, and Fish Consumption Advisories: Developing a Fish Fact Sheet for the Savannah River

In recent years there has been a startling rise in the issuance of fish consumption advisories. Unfortunately, compliance by the public is often low. Low compliance can be due to a number of factors, including confusion over the meaning of advisories, conflicting advisories issued by different agencies, controversies involving health benefits versus the risks from consuming fish, and an unwillingness to act on the advisories because of personal beliefs. In some places, such as along the Savannah River, one state (South Carolina) had issued a consumption advisory while the other (Georgia) had not, although at present, both states now issue consumption advisories for the Savannah River. Herein we report on the development of a fish fact sheet to address the confusing and conflicting information available to the public about consuming fish from the Savannah River. The process involved interviewing fishers to ascertain fishing and consumption patterns, evaluating contaminant levels and exposure pathways, discussing common grounds for the provision of information, and consensus-building among different regulatory agencies (US Environmental Protection Agency, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Georgia Department of Natural Resources) and the Department of Energy. Consensus, a key ingredient in solving many different types of “commons” problems, was aided by an outside organization, the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP). The initial role for CRESP was to offer scientific data as a basis for groups with different assumptions about risks to reach agreement on a regulatory response action. The process was an example of how credible science can be used to implement management and policies and provide a basis for consensus-building on difficult risk communication issues. The paper provides several lessons for improving the risk process from stakeholder conflicts, through risk assessment, to risk management. It also suggests that consensus-building and risk communication are continuing processes that involve assimilation of new information on contaminants and food-chain processes, state and federal law, public policy, and public response.     

城市污水处理厂鼓风曝气阶段的节能降耗研究

近几年我国建成并运行的污水处理厂越来越多,许多污水处理厂因为无法解决巨额的运行费用而不能正常运转,因此对污水处理厂运行进行优化管理,节约能源费用,降低处理成本是保障污水处理厂正常运行的重要手段。本文通过对城市污水厂中的“最耗能段”一鼓风曝气阶段的节能措施进行能耗分析与评价,提出此工艺段的节能措施。     

宁波市水资源可持续利用的经济分析

随着经济社会的快速发展,宁波水资源短缺矛盾日益突出,通过对宁波市历年的水价、人均用水量、人均可支配收入的变化的分析可以看出水价与用水量的关系,重点探讨了引进市场机制,建立水权转让制度,改革水资源价格和水资源的开发管理方式,实行水资源的有偿使用和转让,优化配置水资源,提高水资源的使用效率和效益,以水资源的可持续利用支撑经济和社会的可持续发展.     

高铝粉煤灰开发利用的意义及工艺技术对比分析

内蒙古中西部和山西北部等地区的部分煤炭资源中赋存丰富的含铝矿物,用于发电后产生的粉煤灰中氧化铝含量达40-50％,是一种宝贵的具有较高经济开发价值的含铝资源。本文首先介绍了加强高铝粉煤灰资源开发利用的意思及高铝粉煤灰资源现状,然后叙述了目前国内外利用高铝粉煤灰提取氧化铝主要生产工艺及工艺特点,并对不同工艺的能源消耗进行了对比分析。     

An improved water footprint methodology linking global consumption to local water resources: a case of Spanish tomatoes

A water footprint (WF) measures the total water consumed by a nation, business or individual by calculating the total water used during the production of goods and services. This paper extends the existing methods for WF to more localised levels for crops grown partly in open systems and partly in plastic-covered houses with multi-seasonal harvesting, such as the horticulture industry in Spain. This improvement makes it possible to visualise the links of EU tomato consumption to precise production sites in Spain and opens a debate to the usefulness of such findings. This paper also compares existing ecological methodologies with WF and argues that both life cycle analysis (LCA) and ecological footprint (EF) models could benefit from WF methods. Our results show that the EU consumes 957,000 tons of Spanish fresh tomatoes annually, which evaporates 71 Mm(3)/yr of water and would require 7 Mm(3)/yr of water to dilute leached nitrates in Spain. In Spain, tomato production alone evaporates 297 Mm(3)/yr and pollutes 29 Mm(3)/yr of freshwater. Depending upon the local agro-climatic character, status of water resources, total tomato production volumes and production system, the impact of EU consumption of fresh tomatoes on Spanish freshwater is very location specific. The authors suggest that business now seek to report and address negative impacts on the environment. WF opens the door to complex water relationships and provides vital information for policy actors, business leaders, regulators and managers to their draw, dependence and responsibilities on this increasingly scarce resource.     

试论绿色消费

目前,绿色消费成了人们追求健康生活的目标,它倡导消费者选择有助于公众健康的绿色产品,并在追求生活舒适的同时,注重环境保护,节约资源和能源,实现可持续消费.绿色消费存在的盲目追求表面的绿色、影响生态的"生态旅游"、把"绿色"与天然划等于号等几大误区,消费者应转变消费观念并在生活中选择绿色的消费方式.     

利用排污审计法降低腈纶溶剂消耗

以腈纶装置溶剂为例，详细介绍了利用排污审计法降低物料消耗的过程，从环境保护角度为降低物料提供一种方法。     

信息熵理论在安全系统中的应用探讨

简要地介绍了有关信息熵理论的概念，讨论了安全系统的构成与性质，从墙的角度描述了系统中事故发生的不确定性及其外部条件和内部机制，探讨了信息熵理论在安全系统中的应用。     

日食形成旱涝的耗散结构理论探讨

本文以大气长波形成的耗散结构理论为依据,论述了日食激发大气长波的机理,从而得出日食是形成水旱灾害的主要原因。