Projected Climate Change Effects on Winterkill in Shallow Lakes in the Northern United States

2 was obtained from the output of the Canadian Climate Center General Circulation Model. To illustrate the effect of projected climate change on lake DO characteristics, we present herein DO information simulated, respectively, with inputs of past climate conditions (1961–1979) and with a projected 2 × CO₂ climate scenario, as well as differences of those values. Specific parameters obtained were minimum under-ice and lake bottom DO concentration in winter, duration of under-ice anoxic conditions (<0.1 mg/liter) and low DO conditions (<3 mg/liter), and percentage of anoxic and low DO lake volumes during the ice cover period. Under current climate conditions winterkill occurs typically in shallow eutrophic lakes of the northern contiguous United States. Climate warming is projected to eliminate winterkill in these lakes. This would be a positive effect of climate warming. Fish species under ice may still experience periods of stress and zero growth due to low DO (<3 mg/liter) conditions under projected climate warming.     

Linking the Northeast states of the US mitigation program to the EU Emission Trading Scheme—Implications and costs

It is argued that there are at least five reasons for the Northeast states of the United States to implement a regional emission trading scheme for carbon dioxide despite the lack of federal policy regulations: goodwill, learning, political influence, risk management and competitiveness interests. Using an energy-economy model, the carbon price to bring the firms into compliance with a 10% reduction by 2020 is estimated to be 20-150 US$ per ton C. There have been discussions about linking the ongoing EU Emission Trading Schemes to the Northeast state initiative. The prime argument is that such a linkage would encourage a change of the federal US policy, which has traditionally followed action taken at the state level. Emissions trading with binding mitigation commitments could thus be demanded and accepted also on federal level. This paper demonstrates that the impact of linkage on permit prices depends on the reduction target in the European scheme: A low EU target results in a net flow of permits to the Northeast scheme, while a 40% EU reduction target results in a net flow of permits from the Northeast. Flow of permits from the Northeast state must be compensated for by the EU because the United States is not a party of the Kyoto Protocol. The EU must therefore buy permits in allowances recognized in the Kyoto regime in an amount equal to the net flow of permits from the Northeast states.

美国企业有毒废物排放管理现状及对中国的启示

工业生产中产生的有毒废弃物是我们生活环境的一大危险,每个企业都有责任安全有效地处理其在生产过程中产生的有毒废弃物。美国环保署通过《有毒物质释放清单》的方式,要求工业、企业每年上报其有毒废弃物的产生、管理、排放的详细情况。并对所有数据进行收集、整理、统计、分析后在美国环保署网站上公布。美国这种敦促工业、企业披露其废弃物管理方式的做法可以让公众知晓企业的排污行为,也可以促使企业采取更负责任的方式管理有毒废弃物质。在新形势下,中国即将迎来新一轮区域性结构调整的浪潮,各地政府在产业结构调整的过程中,必须全面考量未来重点发展的行业的环境可持续性。因此,继续建立一个类似于TRI的公开、便捷的各业企业污染物情况数据库,满足各地政府管理地区发展的需要。     

Traumatic brain injury mortality among U.S. children and adolescents ages 0–19 years, 1999–2017

IntroductionTo examine recent traumatic brain injury (TBI) mortality changes among Americans aged 0–19 years by sex, age, urbanicity, state, and intent/causes of injury. Method: TBI mortality per 100,000 population and average annual percent changes (AAPCs), plus 95% confidence intervals (CIs) based on Joinpoint regression models. Results: Age-adjusted TBI mortality among Americans aged 0–19 years declined consistently, though at varying rates between 1999 and 2013 (AAPC = −4.8%, 95%CI: −6.3%, −3.2%), and then significantly increased from 4.42 per 100,000 population in 2013 to 5.17 per 100,000 population in 2017 (AAPC = 3.4%, 95% CI: 1.7%, 5.1%). During the study time period, boys, rural children, and youth aged 15–19 years had higher TBI mortality rates than girls, urban children, and younger children, respectively. TBI mortality from unintentional transport crashes decreased substantially in all age groups between 1999 and 2017, and especially from 1999 to 2010. TBI mortality from suicide increased significantly from 2008 to 2017 in the 10–14-year age group (AAPC = 14.6%, 95% CI: 12.6%, 16.6%) and from 2007 to 2017 in the 15–19-year age group (AAPC = 6.3%, 95% CI: 3.8%, 8.7%). Unintentional transport crashes were the leading cause of TBI-related mortality in 46 states in 1999, but by 2017, suicide became the first leading cause in 14 states. Conclusions: Pediatric TBI mortality declined consistently between 1999 and 2013 and increased significantly from 2013 to 2017, driven primarily by the mortality decrease from unintentional transport crashes and increase in suicide mortality. The spectrum of leading causes of pediatric TBI mortality changed across age groups and over time from 1999 to 2017. Practical Applications: TBI mortality increases in the United States since 2013 are driven primarily by increasing suicide rates, a trend that merits the attention of policy-makers and injury researchers. Action should be taken to curb growing TBI mortality rates among adolescents aged 10–19 years.     

Measuring Urban Water Conservation Policies: Toward a Comprehensive Index

This article (1) discusses existing efforts to measure water conservation policies (WCPs) in the United States (U.S.); (2) suggests general methodological guidelines for creating robust water conservation indices (WCIs); (3) presents a comprehensive template for coding WCPs; (4) introduces a summary index, the Vanderbilt Water Conservation Index (VWCI), which is derived from 79 WCP observations for 197 cities for the year 2015; and (5) compares the VWCI to WCP data extracted from the 2010 American Water Works Association (AWWA) Water and Wastewater Rates survey. Existing approaches to measuring urban WCPs in U.S. cities are limited because they consider only a portion of WCPs or they are restricted geographically. The VWCI consists of a more comprehensive set of 79 observations classified as residential, commercial/industrial, billing structure, drought plan, or general. Our comparison of the VWCI and AWWA survey responses indicate reasonable agreement (ρ = 0.76) between the two WCIs for 98 cities where the data overlap. The correlation suggests the AWWA survey responses can provide fairly robust longitudinal WCP information, but we argue the measurement of WCPs is still in its infancy, and our approach suggests strategies for improving existing methods.     

Confronting flood risk: implications for insurance and risk transfer

The UK floods in late 2000 reinforced an emerging awareness which questioned the long-term sustainability of an exclusive reliance on hard-engineered flood defences to protect the UK population against increased flood risk. The debate has subsequently focused on a broader interpretation of the risks associated with flooding. This paper explores the notion that, although social and technical issues are already being integrated to understand and manage flood, practitioners are now realising the importance of accommodating public hazard understanding and perception of risk into their management models, and there remains a need to fit such ideas to the insurance-based system of flood management in the UK.     

Analyzing the tradeoffs among ecological and fishing effects on an example fish community: A multispecies (fisheries) production model

Species interactions such as predation or competition can have notable implications for fish population dynamics. Stock status and associated biological reference points can be misrepresented if these interactions are not considered. Here we present a multispecies, biomass production model (MS-PROD) developed by incorporating modifications to the Schaefer production model. The modifications explicitly emphasize a functional group approach, highlighting the effects of species interactions that include competition between species within a group, competition between groups, and predation. The mathematical formulation also includes constraints on carrying capacity for both the entire system and for individual groups. We applied the model as initialized to the Northeast U.S. Large Marine Ecosystem finfish community. We then executed simulations designed to explore the behavior of the model with respect to fishery exploitation and ecological interactions. Collectively, the results demonstrated the utility, and the need, for incorporating ecological effects into fisheries models.     

Inorganic chemicals in domestic water of the United Arab Emirates

The concentration of selected inorganic chemicals was determined for 396 samples of bottled water, desalinated water, and groundwater used for drinking and domestic purposes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The objective of this study was to compare the concentrations of inorganic chemicals in different domestic water types used in the UAE with the World Health Organization (WHO) limits for drinking water. Results of the present study revealed a wide variation in the concentrations of major, minor, and trace inorganic chemicals in domestic water of the UAE. For example, the bottled water sold for drinking is depleted in major ions and the total dissolved solids (TDS) in some brands do not exceed 100 mg/l. On the other hand, some of the domestic water used may contain as much as 3,000 mg/l TDS, which is above the WHO recommended limit for drinking water (500–1,500 mg/l TDS). Similarly, while bottled water is almost free of trace ions and minor constituents, some natural groundwater may have concentrations higher than the WHO recommended limits for drinking water. The cause of this variation is related to the different water sources and the large number of companies producing and distributing drinking and domestic water. Moreover, it is clear that the current controls on domestic water quality in some areas, namely conformance of pH and electrical conductivity measurements with prescribed ranges of values, are currently inadequate. These two parameters are not enough to judge if water is suitable for drinking or not and some consumers may receive domestic water of uncertain quality.     

The role of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in the negotiation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was signed by some 153 countries at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, represented a singular triumph for the geographically dispersed group of island states and low-lying coastal developing countries, located in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, as well as in the Caribbean, South China and Mediterranean Seas, and known as the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). This article focuses on the goals of AOSIS during the negotiations leading up to the adoption of the UNFCCC. For the first time in the history of the United Nations, a group of small states, hitherto relegated to the sidelines, was able to develop a specific negotiating agenda addressing areas which are of overriding concern to them and succeeded in having those concerns incorporated in a legally binding Convention of historic importance. As this article reveals, AOSIS set itself 12 negotiating goals during the negotiating rounds leading up to the UNFCCC, and 10 of these 12 goals were realized. Nevertheless, AOSIS, whose member states are most vulnerable to the possible adverse effects of climate change, was particularly concerned about those provisions of the UNFCCC that were either watered-down significantly, made largely meaningless or excluded altogether. These include: the absence of definite targets or specific timetables for the significant reduction of carbon dioxide by the industrialized countries of the North; the lack of permanent and clear financing arrangements in particular the lack of definitive financial provisions for adaptive response measures to the adverse impacts of climate change such as sea-level rise; and the absence of a specific provision for the implementation of coastal zone management schemes for those countries most vulnerable to sea-level rise. As the UNFCCC moves into the implementation phase, AOSIS should and must build on its past success. To do so, it will need to develop clearly defined initiatives aimed at strengthening the commitments for financing and insurance, and to seek inclusion of a provision to develop and finance coastal zone management schemes for the most vulnerable small states. While the article covers the AOSIS negotiating period up to and including the Earth Summit in June 1992, we nevertheless postulate some possible objectives which the AOSIS group might wish to consider in what is sure to be an intensive post-Earth Summit phase of the UNFCCC, leading up to the first Conference of the Parties of that Convention.     

Faith-based aid, globalisation and the humanitarian frontline: an analysis of Western-based Muslim aid organisations

This paper focuses on the emergence and modus operandi of Muslim faith-based aid organisations from the West, particularly those from the United Kingdom. Through case studies of Islamic Relief Worldwide and Muslim Hands, it examines the actual and potential added value generated by these humanitarian players in Muslim-majority contexts at times when aid actors from or associated with the West are being perceived by some as instrumental to the political agendas of Western powers, or are being confronted with the consequences thereof. The study analyses Muslim faith-based aid organisations' transnational networks, their implementing partnerships with local faith-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and their security position within and their access to insecure contexts, drawing on field examples and opinion from Central Asia, Iraq and Pakistan. It thereby argues that there is ground for an expansion of the role of Muslim aid actors, because of the existence of social and political realities in the field that cannot be always effectively tackled by the dominant international development approaches.