Waste reduction through variable charging programs: its sustainability and contributing factors

 In this study, we analyzed the sustainability and determinant factors of waste reduction through variable charging schemes. We drew three main conclusions from the study. (1) Waste reduction was achieved by variable charging and was sustained over an average of at least 10 years. The results regarding the sustainability of the price effect were inconclusive. (2) The main factors contributing to the combustible waste reduction achieved through variable charging were two-tier pricing and the price of waste bags. The effect of two-tier pricing programs was positive. (3) Waste paper recycling and variable charging reinforce each other to promote waste reduction. Received: September 3, 2001 / Accepted: January 13, 2002     

Satellite Tracking of White-naped Crane Migration and the Importance of the Korean Demilitarized Zone

Satellite-tracking of 15 White-naped Cranes ( Grus vipio ) from their Japanese wintering grounds through the Korean Peninsula shows that there are four important regions for conserving migrant cranes: the Three Rivers Plain, the People's Republic of China; Lake Khanka, Russia; Kumya, North Korea; and—most importantly—the demilitarized zone of the Korean Peninsula. Two sites along the Korean demilitarized zone, Panmunch'om and Ch'olwon, were the most heavily used stopover sites, and they present complex international conservation challenges. Cranes stopped at these sites for up to 87.1% of their total migration time; cranes migrating to Zhalong Nature Reserve, China, made it their only lengthy stop. We report the migration routes and the importance of the identified stopover sites, and we outline conservation issues at those sites.     

Sustainability and the measurement of future paths in genuine savings: case studies

This paper extrapolates future paths of genuine savings (GS) by using our integrated assessment model. The results with the base case (BC) indicate that both GS without population change (GS) and GS with population change (GSn) are almost positive in OECD countries in the twenty-first century (satisfying the necessary but insufficient condition for sustainability); those numbers are projected to be negative in 2100. Asia (ASIA), the Middle East and Africa (MEAF), the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (FSEE), and the world show upward trends for both values, showing negative signs in 2010 and positive signs after 2050 (in ASIA, MEAF, and the world) and in 2100 (in FSEE). The values in Latin America (LAMR) remain negative throughout. We examine additional following three cases: demand reduction (DR), carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions reduction (CR), and population reduction (PR). The GSn results compared to the BC indicate that (1) GSn in DR is similar to that of BC, (2) GSn in PR is slightly higher than that of BC, and (3) GSn in CR is unexpectedly lower than that of BC. This GSn reduction in the CR case derives from the fact that the term for calculating resource depletion (especially resource rent, which equals the difference between price and cost) in GS and GSn increased, leading to a greater term being subtracted from gross savings. The resource price increases with the marginal price of natural gas, given the energy-source shift in reducing CO₂ emissions, from cheap coal to expensive natural gas.     

Radiolysis of aqueous phenol solutions with nanoparticles. 1. Phenol degradation and TOC removal in solutions containing TiO2 induced by UV,gamma-ray and electron beams

Aqueous phenol solutions containing TiO(2) nanoparticles were irradiated with ultraviolet (UV), gamma-ray and electron beams. Organic compounds were fully removed by each type of radiation in the presence of the particles. The absorbed energy of the ionizing radiation (gamma-ray and electron beams) needed for removal was much lower than that of UV photocatalysis. Phenol was decomposed by the ionizing radiation in the absence of the nanoparticles and the addition of TiO(2) had no significant effect on phenol decomposition rate. Instead, total organic carbon (TOC) removal using the ionizing radiation was accelerated drastically by TiO(2). It is suggested that TiO(2) particles affect the intermediate compounds produced through the decomposition of phenol. The amount of removed TOC per absorbed energy were compared in the absence and the presence of TiO(2) nanoparticles. Radiolysis with the nanoparticles showed consistently high rate and high efficiency of TOC removal.     

Measuring future dynamics of genuine saving with changes of population and technology: application of an integrated assessment model

Theoretical and empirical studies have been conducted on the genuine saving (GS) based on neoclassical economic theory to assess sustainable development (SD). However, only market prices and statistical national accounts have been used in empirical studies due to limited data availability. The data availability limits to measure GS only in the past and current, causing a wide gap with theoretical results. In this paper, we propose computing GS using an integrated assessment model (IAM) as connected to the mainframe model of macroeconomy. This enables us to use shadow prices, rather than market prices, obtained through an IAM, which ensures substantial consistency among variables. An example would be endogenous capital–output ratio and the rate of TFP. Also, our indicator of GS is more comprehensive in that they now account for various resources, environmental degradation, and land use. Our simulation results, with a particular focus on GS with population change (GSn) and with technological change as well (GSnt), show a sustainable future for up to the end of the century thanks to declining population in the latter half of the century and technological progress, although GS without accounting for population and technology tend to be negative, driven by, among others, capital depreciation and net primary productivity degraded by land use.     

Utilizing the Cyberforest live sound system with social media to remotely conduct woodland bird censuses in Central Japan

We have developed a system that streams and archives live sound from remote areas across Japan via an unmanned automatic camera. The system was used to carry out pilot bird censuses in woodland; this allowed us to examine the use of live sound transmission and the role of social media as a mediator in remote scientific monitoring. The system has been streaming sounds 8 h per day for more than five years. We demonstrated that: (1) the transmission of live sound from a remote woodland could be used effectively to monitor birds in a remote location; (2) the simultaneous involvement of several participants via Internet Relay Chat to listen to live sound transmissions could enhance the accuracy of census data collection; and (3) interactions through Twitter allowed members of the public to engage or help with the remote monitoring of birds and experience inaccessible nature through the use of novel technologies.     

A study on forecasting paths of genuine savings and wealth without and with carbon dioxide constraints: development of shadow price functions

This paper has developed a method for forecasting the future paths of genuine savings (GS) with and without carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions constraints. GS calculations require shadow prices, which can be endogenously determined for variables and constraints in a model. However, in case of a ‘business as usual’ model (BAU), the shadow prices required for calculating GS without constraints show theoretically zero. This research derives the shadow prices required to measure GS for the BAU case as a function of several variables available in the optimal (economically efficient) case. This function is estimated from endogenously obtained variables from a model with environmental constraints. Subsequently, this function is used to calculate shadow prices with and without CO₂ constraints, which are further employed to compute future paths of GS according to two methods applied in the papers by Arrow et al. We successfully estimated GS (or GSnt; GS with changes in population and technology) under the BAU case, however, suggest that GS (or GSnt) measures depend, to a great extent, on the time span under consideration (truncation year) for wealth accounting and the accounting methods by Arrows’ papers used for its estimation. In some cases, especially according to the methodology used by Arrow’s paper in 2004 using adjusted consumption in wealth accounting, the sign of GS (or GSnt) changes from negative to positive when changes in total factor productivity are taken into consideration. These aspects should be explored before measuring (un)sustainability of a particular path based on the GS (or GSnt) indicator.