Narrow Results

Under the assumption that the growth of the population satisfies the generalized logistic equation, a new single species model in polluted environment is proposed in this work. Sufficient conditions for permanence and extinction of the species in the model are given respectively. It is shown that our model and the results are improvements of those in He and Wang [Appl. Math. Model. 31 (2007) 2227–2238].

A mathematical model is presented here to investigate the effects of environmental pollution, intensified by urbanization, on the density of human population. Here, urbanization is assumed to grow with constant rate and also, induced through growing population and the corresponding population pressure. The model analysis, qualitatively and numerically, show that though the growth of population or population pressure is responsible for the growing urbanization, but for very large increase of urbanization, the population may not survive in the long run due to environmental pollution driven by urbanization.

This paper re-studies the relationship between trade openness and environmental pollution. Through the theoretical framework, there is a non-uniform effect of trade openness on environmental pollution. Utilizing four alternative measures of trade openness as threshold variables, this paper examines the effect of trade openness on environmental pollution. We adopt a regression with nonlinearity, in which our nonlinear model includes two regressions — a threshold model and an interaction-term model. Utilizing four alternative measures of trade openness, our threshold test shows a single-threshold effect on pollutant emissions, implying that there are two regimes: low- and high-corruption. Our empirical results show that for countries with high-corruption, increases in trade openness significantly reduce pollutants emissions whatever CO₂ emissions or SO₂ emissions, and the larger effects of trade openness on environmental quality. However, the impact of trade openness on pollution was not found in countries with low-corruption. This study suggests that further trade openness and reduced environmental degradation (i.e., decline in CO₂ and SO₂ emissions) are compatible rather than competing objectives, especially in high-corruption countries. Furthermore, our results also show that in low-corruption countries, the negative effects of income on CO₂ emissions are statistically significant, but in high-corruption countries it is not so.

A major challenge for many countries is the implementation of environmental regulations developed to reduce or eliminate air, water, and other pollutants. Recent efforts to ensure value for money in environmental protection, examine how to improve regulatory design, compliance promoting, and regulatory enforcement to deter and prevent regulatory violation. Work in accountability mechanisms such as performance audits have helped identify regulatory implementation issues. Opportunity exits to supplement traditional compliance promotion with new environmental data sources, including from citizen science.

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) can enter the environment through various routes. Given the emerging importance of PPCP contaminants in China, we used semi-structured interviews to probe Chinese scientists’ perspectives, opinions, and attitudes on current and future PPCP research needs. We interviewed 14 respondents, nearly all of whom recognized the potential for adverse effects on human and ecosystem health even though current scientific evidence supporting harmful outcomes was viewed as tentative. Respondents identified poor disposal practices at hospitals and PPCP factories as important targets for focused control measures that could have high impact. Some thought public media could be used to build awareness of PPCPs among citizens; others thought that accurate information needed to be provided directly to policymakers and regulators. To make appropriate and cost-effective decisions regarding PPCP discharge to the environment, cross-disciplinary cooperation will be needed between Chinese environmental scientists, medical scientists, engineers, and economists.

Respiratory illness threatens the learning potential of hundreds of millions of children around the world. We find in a human volunteer study involving three sites and 253 volunteers that respiratory droplets — of the size and nature to potentially contain COVID-19, influenza, allergens and other contaminants — diminish in number on exhalation by up to 99% via the “airway hygiene” administration of a nasal saline rich in calcium. Exhaled particles were significantly higher and efficacy of airway hygiene greatest at the site (Bangalore India) with highest fine particle ambient air burden. We argue for the use of airway hygiene for pandemic and post-pandemic global learning.

The increased pollution in the world atmosphere is a global concern. Water, air, and soil are polluted by various sources, such as farm fertilizer, sewage industrial waste products, fumes, and plastics, which in turn impact human health. Plastics and other mixtures of waste affect live in the water. Moreover, the ecosystem is disrupted by the use of heavy metal-containing chemicals in agriculture, and those are eventually consumed by humans. The consequences are a significant negative impact on health including reproductive health, which impairs fertility in the human population. Reproductive functions are severely affected by different chemicals which may interfere with hormonal functions. Greater consequences are faced by the women as the number of germ cells present in the ovary is fixed during fetal life, and which are nonrenewable. From the production of ovum to fertilization, to implantation, and finally continuation of pregnancy, all are affected by the heavy metals and endocrine disruptors. Lifestyle modifications such as consumption of organic foods, plastic product avoidance, separation of residential areas from industrial/agricultural areas, proper waste disposal, and so on, may help to improve the situation.

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• The energy sector
  • Coal
  • Oil
  • Other energy sources

• Environmental impacts

• The simulations
  • The model
  • The scenarios
  • Discussion

• Conclusions

• References

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• Expectations from a liberalised ESI

• Plant capacity and fuel use after liberalisation

• Air pollution emissions after liberalisation

• Revisions in official energy/emissions scenarios
  • Fuel shares and CO₂ emissions scenarios
  • SO₂ emissions scenarios

• Conclusion

• References

Cancer in humans may be caused by exposure to carcinogens which occurs against the will of the individuals affected. Such cancers can be distinguished from those caused by tobacco smoking, alcohol drinking and deliberate sun exposure, together with malignancies for which diet, obesity, exercise, reproductive history, sexual behaviour and the like are risk factors, all often described as cancers associated with lifestyle. Involuntary exposure to carcinogens is best characterised in the workplace. Most of the substances known to be carcinogenic for humans have been identified following epidemiological study of particular workers. Occupational cancer may be prevented by regulation, once carcinogens or hazardous environments have been recognised, despite unacceptable delays in the case of asbestos specifically. Wider pollution of the environment is generally attributable to industrial practice, though arsenic contamination of water supplies in some locations also occurs naturally. Atmospheric pollution causes lung cancer, with worst exposures now involving developing countries. Local pollution by asbestos, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or heavy metals may cause cancer amongst residents, but clear proof of causation in relation to pesticides, solvents and industrial waste in such situations is difficult. Media attention to cancer allegedly associated with a variety of consumer products (apart from tobacco and alcohol) raises anxiety and expectations. Specific actions have been taken in some circumstances, but expectations regarding absolute safety can never be met. Cancer clusters are also extensively reported. Corresponding investigations serve to address neighbourhood concerns, but have not revealed modes of cancer causation which would have otherwise remained unknown. Overall, involuntary exposures account for a small proportion of cancer cases, but such cancers are preventable and the community demands no less.

At the center of the pollution haven debate is the claim that foreign investors from industrial countries are attracted to weak environment regulations in developing countries. Some recent location choice studies have found evidence of this attraction, but only for inward FDI in industrial countries. The few studies of inward FDI in developing countries have been hampered by weak measures of environmental stringency and by insufficient data to estimate variation in firm response by pollution intensity. This paper tests for pollution haven behavior by estimating the determinants of location choice for equity joint ventures (EJVs) in China. Beginning with a theoretical framework of firm production and abatement decisions, we derive and estimate a location choice model using data on a sample of EJV projects, Chinese effective levies on water pollution, and Chinese industrial pollution intensity. Results show EJVs in highly-polluting industries funded through Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan are attracted by weak environmental standards. In contrast, EJVs funded from non-ethnically Chinese sources are not significantly attracted by weak standards, regardless of the pollution intensity of the industry. These findings are consistent with pollution haven behavior, but not by investors from high income countries and only in industries that are highly polluting. Further investigation into differences in technology between industrial and developing country investors might shed new light on this debate.

Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing and Product Support (ECMPS) is an important issue driven by concern for the escalating deterioration of the environment. ECMPS involves integrating environmental thinking into the design of a product, the selection of materials, manufacturing processes, delivery and support to consumers, and end-of-life management of the product after its useful life has ended. Both academia and industry are interested in finding solutions in this newly emerging research area. Related are the researches on pollution prevention, remanufacturing, disassembly, life cycle of products, after–sale support and material recovery. The aim of this study is to emphasize the effects of product design, operation, maintenance and disassembly on the environment, and how these issues can be considered in the manufacturing phase to minimize any negative environmental impact.

Our planet is characterized by large volumes ofwater that cover nearly three-quarter of the earth's surface. The immense part of this water is salty, and most of the freshwater is stored as groundwater or frozen in glaciers. Environment is constantly changing and anthropogenic activities are responsible for many of the environmental problems facing currently. This chapter addresses many of the present-day water quality problems from an international perspective, covering critical issues such as river and lake contamination, quality assessments, and some remedial measures to minimize pollution.

From the beginning of the reform and open door policy period, in 1978, to the present moment, China has consistently subordinated the importance of environmental protection to the pursuit of rapid economic growth in the name of constructing a socialist modernized state. Remarkable achievements in economic development have been made in the last three decades, and people's living standards, in material terms, have been vastly improved, but China has paid a very heavy price, in environmental terms, for such gains. Confronted with a widening spectrum of problems manifesting rapid environmental deterioration, major initiatives and measures have been repeatedly undertaken by the Central government to improve the efficacy of the country's environment protection apparatus. This chapter reviews the challenges encountered, and progress made, in the field of environmental protection, tracing the impacts of rapid industrial and urban growth on the country's environmental contours and ecological landscape. We argue that, despite of the pro-environment actions undertaken by the Central government, the prospect for a quick reversal of the current trends of environmental degradation remains slim because such efforts have always been resisted or even negated by local governments bent on pursuing economic growth at the cost of environmental protection. Unless China's political culture is reformed to allow a greater degree of transparency in local governance matters and that the implementation of environmental policies and programs is effectively and vastly strengthened, the country will be hard pressed to achieve even its modest environmental targets in the foreseeable future.

In large-scale urban adaptation and real estate development process, some protective cultural relic buildings and modern excellent architecture face the reality of being demolished, that will generate a large number of construction rubbish, pollute the environment, at the same time, cause a large number of resources waste. In this paper, the application of monolithic moving technique of building is introduced, which can not only save nature resources, but also maximum reduce pollution to the environment.

The pollution issue of PAHs in the soil of cities and outskirts gets more and more attention. The research is based on the sixteen kind of target compounds of PAHs controlled preferentially by EPA in the ten soil sampling points of fields in five towns of Yong Qing area in Lang Fang city, Hebei province. It applys PCA to recognize main sources of PAHs in the soil. The results show that the region has four primary sources, civilian combustion and traffic pollution sources, industrial coal and oil pollution sources, gasoline engine pollution sources and coking of oil pollution sources. The pollution of Langfang area mainly stems from the compound PAHs pollution of oil sources and coal tar. The levels of pollution of PAHs in the soil is: Bie Guzhuang town > Hou Yi town > Yong Qing town > Han Cun town > Li Lancheng town.

Twenty-first century is a time with rapid development of science and technology, and with progress and prosperity of the society. But it is also a time with all kinds of problems, such as the rapid increase in population, a large number of energy consumption, forest reduction, greenhouse effect, pollutants emissions, and the reduction of biological diversity. The protection of the environment has become one of the most important issues of human beings in twenty-first century. China is the largest textile and clothing producing and exporting country in the world. The production of clothing is a complicated process, which involves many steps and adds a lot of pollution to the environment.