Environmental issues in Sweden 1973–1989: Science and policy

The aim of this study is to analyze the environmental agenda in Sweden during the last two decades. A content analysis was made of all articles in a Swedish journal,Miljö-Aktuellt. Further, to elucidate the evolutionary process of problem formulation and reformulation, two cases were investigated, dealing with the impact of plant nutrients and mercury on surface water quality. The transport of heavy metals is an essential component of the ecological process and problem of acidification, and similarly, plant nutrients are part of the concept of eutrophication. Two concepts, the research cycle and the policy cycle, are tentatively applied to the conceptualizations of acidification and eutrophication. Additional data for the latter part of the study is supplied from parliamentary motions during 1973–1989. The substance/media focus of the 1970s was connected to a point-source abatement strategy, which mainly aimed at removing negative effects at a local level. The development of a national preventive strategy is traced in problem formulations related to “processes” going on in the technosphere: wastes, noise, energy production, traffic, and toxic substances. This period lasted from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, and the need for improved resource management as a means to control environmental problems has been a generally accepted idea. However, this does not mean that measures actually taken are sufficient in a material balance perspective. Further, in the 1980s there was a strong emphasis upon processes in the ecosphere. This focus also implies source-related policies. To a certain extent, the remedies are within the scope of national capabilities, but the international dimension is becoming increasingly important. Scientific proofs of resource and environment degradation are essential to induce political action and to stimulate international cooperation. From this study, however, it is not possible to assess the existence of any particular policy-triggering information.     

Environmental 238U and 232Th concentration measurements in an area of high level natural background radiation at Palong, Johor, Malaysia

Concentrations of uranium-238 and thorium-232 in soil, water, grass, moss and oil-palm fruit samples collected from an area of high background radiation were determined using neutron activation analysis (NAA). U-238 concentration in soil ranged from 4.9 mg kg(-1) (58.8 Bq kg(-1)) to 40.4 mg kg(-1) (484.8 Bq kg(-1)), Th-232 concentration ranged from 14.9 mg kg(-1) (59.6 Bq kg(-1)) to 301.0 mg kg(-1) (1204 Bq kg(-1)). The concentration of U-238 in grass samples ranged from below the detection limit to 0.076 mg kg(-1) (912 mBq kg(-1)), and Th-232 ranged from 0.008 mg kg(-1) (32 mBq kg(-1)) to 0.343 mg kg(-1) (1.372 Bq kg(-1)). U-238 content in water samples ranged from 0.33 mg kg(-1) (4.0 Bq L(-1)) to 1.40 mg kg(-1) (16.8 Bq L(-1)), and Th-232 ranged from 0.19 mg kg(-1) (0.76 Bq L(-1)) to 0.66 mg kg(-1) (2.64 Bq L(-1)). It can be said that the concentrations of environmental U-238 and Th-232 in grass and water samples in the study area are insignificant. Mosses were found to be possible bio-radiological indicators due to their high absorption of the heavy radioelements from the environment.     

贵州省西部环境灾害与防治

本文分析了贵州西部环境灾害的形成原因，它既受自然因素的影响，也受人类活动的影响。并提出了防治贵州西部环境灾害的基本措施。     

Predicting the frequency of accidents in port areas by developing event trees from historical analysis

The historical analysis of 828 accidents in port areas, which have been selected from a database, has been used to identify the sequences of the accidents. Processing these data has allowed the event trees and the probability of the various accident scenarios to be determined. By using these event trees and figures detailing the frequency of the events that initiated the accidents, as taken from various authors, the frequency of the accidents has been determined.     

Effective environmental management through life cycle assessment

Unplanned and unsustainable development (particularly rapid industrialisation) has placed great pressure in every dimension of the environment (air, water, soil, health, etc.). The resulting disturbance in the natural ecological balance is a serious concern. Sustainable development is the need of the hour; it can only be achieved through effective environmental management. Environmental management will become indispensable in the future as regulatory restrictions tighten and public expectations of environmental performance increase. The day is not far away when a customer will prefer to buy products produced by an environmentally committed organisation. In short, the environmental commitment of an organisation will become a market strategy.

Environmental management is a set of actions based on a structured methodology to ensure that an organisation is committed to the environment and that the production process has minimal/no adverse affect on it. This article emphasises environmental management in the real engineering sense of the term, and discusses how to develop an effective environmental management system through life cycle assessment. It further demonstrates through a real life case study how an industry has achieved landmark success in managing its environment, production, as well as winning the good faith of society.     

Barriers to worldwide institutionalization of social and environmental disclosure

This study analyzes how groups of organizations that share their social and environmental information are formed in a similar way to identify barriers to the homogenization of social and environmental disclosure (SED) at the international level. Based on a sample of observations of listed firms from six different countries, results suggest that SED does not homogenize globally, spontaneously, because of cultural and geographical barriers. The institutions of environmental disclosure (ED) and social disclosure (SD) are different, thus forming different organizational fields at the international level. The spoken language is a barrier to the international isomorphism of ED and therefore to its comparability. However, language is a less important barrier to SD. When cultural institutions are weaker or have the same roots as North American institutions, cultural diversity does not stop the homogenization of the SD. Moreover, the ED is more isomorphic/comparable at the global level than SD, while the SD is more isomorphic/comparable at the level of culturally distinguishable subsets than ED.     

Environmental awareness and biodiversity conservation among resettled communal farmers in Gwayi Valley Conservation Area,Zimbabwe

This study was conducted in Gwayi Valley Conservation Area in Zimbabwe. The objective was to evaluate the level of environmental awareness raising among rural communities resettled by government in a wildlife conservation area and their behavior and actions towards biodiversity conservation. We selected three communities based on the degree of exposure to environmental awareness campaigns by various government departments and non-governmental organizations. This formed a gradient of exposure to environmental awareness campaigns, ranging from the most accessible and exposed community (Hangano), moderately exposed (Gwayi) through to the least accessible and exposed community (Karna). We used focus group discussions, key informant interviews and structured interviews with 95 respondents in the selected communities from November 2016 to April 2017. Through public awareness raising, a number of conservation groups were established including fire and hunting committees, anti-poaching teams and environmental resource monitors. While these groups were found to be either inactive or less effective in Gwayi and Karna, all were found to be very active and effective in Hangano. Similarly, community behavior and actions that caused biodiversity loss such as indiscriminate cutting of live trees, poaching, streambank cultivation, fishing in rivers with nets and use of sledges were much reduced in Hangano than in Gwayi and Karna. Frequent environmental awareness campaigns played a critical role in promoting biodiversity in Hangano. We conclude that substantial gains can be made in environmental conservation by investing more in public awareness campaigns, particularly in developing countries such as Zimbabwe where financial resources for conservation are scarce.     

Exploring the role of local community perceptions in sustainability measurements

Measuring sustainability is an integral part of decision-making processes in order to promote sustainable development. The present paper focuses on sustainability indicators as these are measured on local level and explores two main issues: firstly, the subjective measurement of indicators focusing especially on social dimensions of sustainability, secondly, the incorporation of local perceptions in sustainability assessments. These two issues are explored in the Asopos River basin in Greece, an area where significant environmental degradation has been observed in the past decades and is also under financial pressure due to the ongoing national recession. A large-scale research study was conducted measuring environmental, economic and social indicators while, at a second stage, a model was developed, estimating new indicators that incorporate local communities’ perceptions on what they considered as important for their area. The results of the study reveal that the most important indicators for the sustainable development of the area, according to locals’ perceptions, are environmental quality as well as quality of life. By contrast, trust in local and central institutions and also local enterprises were not considered as important by locals. These results illustrate the importance of combining global and national scale assessment with locally focused social measurements of sustainability in order to better understand what is important for local communities prior to embarking on public policy planning.     

The ecological insurance trap

Common pool resources often insure individual livelihoods against the collapse of private endeavors. When endeavors based on private and common pool resources are interconnected, investment in one can put the other at risk. We model Senegalese pastoralists who choose whether to grow crops, a private activity, or raise livestock on common pool pastureland. Livestock can increase the likelihood of locust outbreaks via ecological processes related to grassland degradation. Locust outbreaks damage crops, but not livestock, which are used for savings and insurance. We show the incentive to self-protect (reduce grazing pressure) or self-insure (increase livestock levels) changes with various property rights schemes and levels of ecological detail. If the common pool nature of insurance exacerbates the ecological externality even fully-informed individuals may make risk management decisions that increase the probability of catastrophe, creating an “insurance trap.”     

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.