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Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been established for recycling of paper waste with focus on a material recovery facility (MRF). The MRF upgrades the paper and cardboard waste before it is delivered to other industries where new paper or board products are produced. The accounting showed that the GHG contributions from the upstream activities and operational activities, with global warming factors (GWFs) of respectively 1 to 29 and 3 to 9 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1 paper waste, were small in comparison with the downstream activities. The GHG contributions from the downstream reprocessing of the paper waste ranged from approximately 490 to 1460 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1 of paper waste. The system may be expanded to include crediting of avoided virgin paper production which would result in GHG contributions from -1270 to 390 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1 paper waste. It may also be assumed that the wood not used for virgin paper production instead is used for production of energy that in turn is assumed to substitute for fossil fuel energy. This would result in GHG contributions from -1850 to -4400 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1 of paper waste. These system expansions reveal very large GHG savings, suggesting that the indirect upstream and operational GHG contributions are negligible in comparison with the indirect downstream emissions. However, the data for reprocessing of paper waste and the data for virgin paper production are highly variable. These differences are mainly related to different energy sources for the mills, both in regards to energy form (heat or electricity) and fuel (biomass or fossil fuels). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming potential (GWP) is an important impact category in life-cycle-assessment modelling of waste management systems. However, accounting of biogenic CO2 emissions and sequestered biogenic carbon in landfills and in soils, amended with compost, is carried out in different ways in reported studies. A simplified model of carbon flows is presented for the waste management system and the surrounding industries, represented by the pulp and paper manufacturing industry, the forestry industry and the energy industry. The model calculated the load of C to the atmosphere, under ideal conditions, for 14 different waste management scenarios under a range of system boundary conditions and a constant consumption of C-product (here assumed to be paper) and energy production within the combined system. Five sets of criteria for assigning GWP indices to waste management systems were applied to the same 14 scenarios and tested for their ability to rank the waste management alternatives reflecting the resulting CO2 load to the atmosphere. Two complete criteria sets were identified yielding fully consistent results; one set considers biogenic CO2 as neutral, the other one did not. The results showed that criteria for assigning global warming contributions are partly linked to the system boundary conditions. While the boundary to the paper industry and the energy industry usually is specified in LCA studies, the boundary to the forestry industry and the interaction between forestry and the energy industry should also be specified and accounted for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric landfill gas emissions present serious problems when trying to counter the effects of global warming. The main constituent of landfill gas is methane, a more damaging greenhouse gas than CO2. European Union directives require the control and collection of landfill gases and promote energy recovery via combustion of the gas. A key challenge for combustion of landfill gas is the highly corrosive nature of the gas constituents which causes heightened maintenance and failure of applied engine systems. Conventional engines suffer from the effects of corrosion; however, stepped piston engine technology has yet to be considered for operational use at landfill sites. The engine has inherent advantages for such an application when compared with current conventional engines. The engine allows improved lubricating oil health compared to conventional engines and hence reduced oil use. This study discusses the challenges along with modelling of stepped piston and equivalent four-stroke engine solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming factors (kg CO2-eq.-tonne-1 of waste) have been modelled for 40 different municipal waste management scenarios involving a variety of recycling systems (paper, glass, plastic and organics) and residual waste management by landfilling, incineration or mechanical-biological waste treatment. For average European waste composition most waste management scenarios provided negative global warming factors and hence overall savings in greenhouse gas emissions: Scenarios with landfilling saved 0-400, scenarios with incineration saved 200-700, and scenarios with mechanical-biological treatment saved 200- 750 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1 municipal waste depending on recycling scheme and energy recovery. Key parameters were the amount of paper recycled (it was assumed that wood made excessive by paper recycling substituted for fossil fuel), the crediting of the waste management system for the amount of energy recovered (hard-coal-based energy was substituted), and binding of biogenic carbon in landfills. Most other processes were of less importance. Rational waste management can provide significant savings in society's emission of greenhouse gas depending on waste composition and efficient utilization of the energy recovered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Action on climate change has enjoyed popular support in most Western countries. Despite this, successive governments have struggled to implement policy to tackle this issue. Using the case of opposition to the Clean Energy Act, passed in Australia to establish an emissions trading scheme, this paper argues that a growing and broad sentiment of distrust in political elites, described as 'anti-politics', can explain some of this contradiction. Particular forms of climate policy, in particular emissions trading schemes, have been successfully framed as policies that appeal to the interests of a new class of liberal elites while hurting ordinary working people. This frame was used successfully in Australia by conservative forces to oppose the Clean Energy Act. While used cynically by political leaders in this case, the paper argues that anti-political sentiment reflects genuine concerns about the detachment between the state and voting population. This detachment is reflected in neoliberal climate policies. Through briefly examining the cases of the Trump Administration's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and the Gilets Jaunes protest movement, the paper argues that while formulating climate policy we must consider anti-political sentiment, developing responses to the climate crisis from a bottom-up rather than top-down approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a proposal to replace the electrically operated pump of a forced circulation solar hot water system with a windmill-driven pump. A two-stage centrifugal pump driven by a vertical axis windmill with a Savonius type rotor is added to the fluid loop. Tests on the forced circulation system (FCS) mode, with two different pump speeds, driven by an electrically operated pump or in wind-assisted system (WAS) mode were carried out during January, April, July, and October 2009. Test results obtained on clear days are reported. A daily average thermal efficiency level of between 30 and 37 per cent was obtained in FCS mode and it was between 31 and 36 per cent in WAS mode. With higher wind velocities, higher collector flow rates and higher efficiencies are obtained. In general, the performance of a domestic hot water system operating in WAS mode is on a par with that obtained in FCS mode. The WAS mode is a viable alternative to FCS mode in remote areas where the supply of electricity is problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The term additive manufacturing (AM) describes a collection of production techniques enabling the layer-by-layer manufacture of components using digital data and raw material as inputs. The AM technology variant most frequently used in the production of end use parts is laser sintering (LS).It has been suggested that efficient usage of the energy inputs is one of the advantages of the technology. This paper presents a comparative assessment of the electricity consumptions of two major polymeric LS platforms: the Sinterstation HiQ + HS from 3D Systems and the EOSINT P 390 from EOS GmbH. The energy inputs to a build consisting of two prosthetic parts were recorded during power-monitoring experiments conducted on both platforms. This paper injects clarity into the ongoing research on the AM energy consumption by applying a novel classification system; it is argued that the AM energy usage can be divided into the job-dependent, time-dependent, geometry-dependent, and Z-height-dependent energy consumption values. The recorded mean real power consumption conforms to the values that have been reported for similar platforms. The measured energy consumption rates are higher than reported elsewhere. It is also shown that the purely time-dependent energy consumption is the main energy drain. Furthermore, the presentation of results in the context of previous literature highlights the caveats attached to summary metrics of the AM input usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies how people reason about and make sense of human-made global warming, based on ten focus group interviews with Norwegian citizens. It shows that the domestication of climate science knowledge was shaped through five sense-making devices: news media coverage of changes in nature, particularly the weather, the coverage of presumed experts’ disagreement about global warming, critical attitudes towards media, observations of political inaction, and considerations with respect to everyday life. These sense-making devices allowed for ambiguous outcomes, and the paper argues four main outcomes with respect to the domestication processes: the acceptors, the tempered acceptors, the uncertain and the sceptics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contributes to extant understandings of media representations of climate change by examining the role of the English regional newspaper press in the transformation and dissemination of climate change discourse. Unlike previous accounts, this paper contends that such newspapers shape public understandings of climate change in ways that have yet to be adequately charted. With this in mind, this paper examines the ways in which global climate change is translated into a locally relevant phenomenon. That is, it focuses on its “domestication.” Although we acknowledge that there are a number of ways in which this process occurs, specific attention is drawn to stories that highlight the destruction of local landscape features, the transformation of important habitats, and the arrival of “alien” species. The broader significance of such stories is considered in relation to long-standing debates concerning the importance of landscape to notions of national and regional identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The collection, transfer and transport of waste are basic activities of waste management systems all over the world. These activities all use energy and fuels, primarily of fossil origin. Electricity and fuel consumptions of the individual processes were reviewed and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions were quantified. The emission factors were assigned a global warming potential (GWP) and aggregated into global warming factors (GWFs), which express the potential contribution to global warming from collection, transport and transfer of 1 tonne of wet waste. Six examples involving collection, transfer and transport of waste were assessed in terms of GHG emissions, including both provision and use of energy. (GHG emissions related to production, maintenance and disposal of vehicles, equipment, infrastructure and buildings were excluded.) The estimated GWFs varied from 9.4 to 368 kg CO2-equivalent (kg CO2-eq.) per tonne of waste, depending on method of collection, capacity and choice of transport equipment, and travel distances. The GHG emissions can be reduced primarily by avoiding transport of waste in private cars and by optimization of long distance transport, for example, considering transport by rail and waterways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy system plays an essential role in accounting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from waste management systems and waste technologies. This paper focuses on energy use and energy recovery in waste management and outlines how these aspects should be addressed consistently in a GHG perspective. Essential GHG emission data for the most common fuels, electricity and heat are provided. Average data on electricity provision show large variations from country to country due to different fuels being used and different efficiencies for electricity production in the individual countries (0.007-1.13 kg CO2-eq. kWh-1). Marginal data on electricity provision show even larger variations (0.004-3 kg CO2-eq. kWh-1). Somewhat less variation in GHG emissions is being found for heat production (0.01-0.69 kg CO2-eq. kWh-1). The paper further addresses allocation principles and the importance of applying either average or marginal energy data, and it discusses the consequences of introducing reduction targets on CO2 emissions. All discussed aspects were found to significantly affect the outcome of GHG accounts suggesting transparent reporting to be critical. Recommendations for use of average/marginal energy data are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how city planners engaged with global climate scientists to devise contextually relevant strategies to address the urban heat island effect-a potentially dangerous heat event expected to increase along with global warming. Drawing original data from the New York City Regional Heat Island Initiative, a collaborative effort between scientists and urban planners, the paper highlights how global climate science is 'localised' as researchers and policy-makers struggle to make technically legitimate and politically accountable decisions. The paper argues that the localisation of global science often involves a process of co-production, where technical issues are not divorced from their social setting and a diverse set of stakeholders engage in analytical reviews and the crafting of policy solutions. The paper argues that the co-production framework can contribute to more scientifically legitimate and publicly accountable decision-making related to urban climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines climatic heat stress as a question of workplace health and safety in relation to at-risk and precarious labour. First, we argue that precarity is usefully understood as a phenomenon that is both generalised (all work is precarious given the function of labour under capitalism) and differentiated (experienced differently across geography, labour process and employment status). We frame climate change and labour relations as internally related and argue that climate change needs to be incorporated into the notion of precarity. Second, we explore the experience of construction workers in New South Wales, Australia, and consider the industry as a potential site of organising over both labour conditions and global warming. We conclude that climate change exacerbates precariousness, disrupting all work and intensifying and extending individual risk in various ways. Further, these experiences present a potential site to simultaneously act on both global warming and labour conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the crucial role of the mass media in influencing public discourse, this study examines the discourses around climate change within the Brazilian press, covering the time period of 2003-2013. Survey evidence has shown that Brazilians' degree of concern about climate change is higher than almost anywhere else, with nine out of 10 Brazilians considering climate change a serious problem. The primary purpose of this study is to investigate how the press engendered Brazilians' striking level of climate change concern, with special attention to how the discourse developed over time. To this end, I undertake a corpus-assisted discourse analysis to examine the most dominant linguistic patterns in the discourse, presenting evidence on an unprecedented scale and with considerable depth. The corpus consists of 19,686 newspaper texts (11.4 million words) published by 12 Brazilian broadsheet papers. The results are interpreted in the light of available opinion polls on the public's perception of climate change as well as Brazil's national context and environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, researchers and scientists are facing problems in terms of environmental imbalance and global warming owing to numerous use of composite materials prepared by synthetic fibers and petrochemical polymers. Hence, an increasing attention has been devoted to the research and development of polymer composites reinforced with the natural fibers. The natural fibers are the most suitable alternative of synthetic fibers due to their biodegradability, eco-friendliness and acceptable mechanical properties. The natural fibers are attracting the researchers and scientists to exploit their properties by amalgamating them with the polymer. The properties of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites mainly depend upon various factors such as properties of fibers and matrices, fiber loading percentage, size and orientation of fibers, stacking sequences, degree of interfacial bonding, fiber surface treatments, hybridization and incorporation of additives and coupling agents. Tensile and flexural tests are the most important investigations to predict the applications of the materials. A good number of research has been carried out on tensile and flexural properties of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites. In this paper, a review on tensile and flexural properties of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites in terms of effects of fiber weight fraction, geometry, surface treatments, orientations and hybridization is presented. Moreover, recent applications of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites are also presented in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water shortage has plagued the social development and human well-being of global closed basins. However, the hydroclimate research on different time scales in these regions remains inadequate at a global scale. In this paper, the hydrological responses from global closed basins to millennial-scale and centennial-scale cold/warm events since the Last Glacial Maximum were explored. Closed-basin lake records indicate that the westerlies-dominated closed basins are generally wetter during cold events than the corresponding warm ones on the millennial and centennial scales. In contrast, the monsoon-influenced closed basins prevail wetter climates during warm events. According to the hydroclimate simulations, precipitation seasonality plays a significant role in causing above spatial–temporal patterns. There is more winter rainfall in westerlies-dominated closed basins during cold events in the Last Glacial Maximum and Little Ice Age and more summer rainfall in monsoon-influenced closed basins during warm events in the mid-Holocene and Medieval Climate Anomaly. Under modern and future global warming, the hydroclimate changes in global closed basins show more regional differentiation, resulting in wetter mid-latitude Asian and low-latitude African closed basins but drier southwest North American and Australian closed basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of the waste in Greenland is disposed of in open dumps or incinerated in simple small-scale incinerators. There are relatively few environmental regulations that control the emissions of leachate, landfill gas and/or flue gases from incineration. Only some scrap metal and hazardous waste are collected separately and exported to Europe. The impacts from the current waste management system were modelled from a life-cycle perspective using the LCA-waste model EASEWASTE. Impacts with regard to global warming, acidification, etc. are small (a few hundred person-equivalents (PE) for a system serving 56 000 inhabitants), but significant environmental loads are caused by air emissions from the incinerators and leachate from the landfills. Several alternative management scenarios were modelled and results show that increased use of incineration, full utilization of the heat production for district heating and separation of hazardous waste probably could improve Greenland’s waste management system. Segregation of recyclable materials as paper, cardboard and biowaste will do little to environmentally improve the waste management system due to loss of energy recovery from incineration and the long transport of the recyclables to markets. Export of waste to Denmark for incineration at modern waste incinerators with advanced flue gas cleaning could also be considered as a means to achieve better environmental performance of the waste management system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Public perception of global climate change is strongly influenced by media constructions of scientific knowledge. This paper explores recent scientific findings and the press coverage thereof and is based on a content analysis of two years of global reporting on climate related positive feedback mechanisms (climate system responses to global warming which lead to further warming). Results indicate that non-US news organizations, especially in the UK, are at the forefront of the discourse on climate feedback loops. Poor US press coverage on such climate thresholds might be understood not only as self-censorship, but as a "false negative" error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How, and when, does it become possible to conceptualize a truly planetary crisis? The Cold War nuclear arms race installed one powerful concept of planetary crisis in American culture. The science enabling the US nuclear arsenal, however, also produced unintended byproducts: notably, a radical new investment in the earth sciences. Cold War nuclear science ultimately produced not only bombs, but also a new understanding of the earth as biosphere. Thus, the image of planetary crisis in the US was increasingly doubled during the Cold War - the immediacy of nuclear threat matched by concerns about rapid environmental change and the cumulative effects of industrial civilization on a fragile biosphere. This paper examines the evolution of (and competition between) two ideas of planetary crisis since 1945: nuclear war and climate change. In doing so, the paper offers an alternative history of the nuclear age and considers the US national security implications of a shift in the definition of planetary crisis from warring states to a warming biosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of post-consumer solid waste contributes to emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) representing about 3% of global anthropogenic GHG emissions. Most GHG reporting initiatives around the world utilize two metrics proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): radiative forcing (RF) and global warming potential (GWP). This paper provides a general introduction of the factors that define a GHG and explains the scientific background for estimating RF and GWP, thereby exposing the lay reader to a brief overview of the methods for calculating the effects of GHGs on climate change. An objective of this paper is to increase awareness that the GWP of GHGs has been re-adjusted as the concentration and relative proportion of these GHGs has changed with time (e.g., the GWP of methane has changed from 21 to 25 CO2-eq). Improved understanding of the indirect effects of GHGs has also led to a modification in the methodology for calculating GWP. Following a presentation of theory behind GHG, RF and GWP concepts, the paper briefly describes the most important GHG sources and sinks in the context of the waste management industry. The paper serves as a primer for more detailed research publications presented in this special issue of Waste Management & Research providing a technology-based assessment of quantitative GHG emissions from different waste management technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounting of emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG) is a major focus within waste management. This paper analyses and compares the four main types of GHG accounting in waste management including their special features and approaches: the national accounting, with reference to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the corporate level, as part of the annual reporting on environmental issues and social responsibility, life-cycle assessment (LCA), as an environmental basis for assessing waste management systems and technologies, and finally, the carbon trading methodology, and more specifically, the clean development mechanism (CDM) methodology, introduced to support cost-effective reduction in GHG emissions. These types of GHG accounting, in principle, have a common starting point in technical data on GHG emissions from specific waste technologies and plants, but the limited availability of data and, moreover, the different scopes of the accounting lead to many ways of quantifying emissions and producing the accounts. The importance of transparency in GHG accounting is emphasised regarding waste type, waste composition, time period considered, GHGs included, global warming potential (GWP) assigned to the GHGs, counting of biogenic carbon dioxide, choice of system boundaries, interactions with the energy system, and generic emissions factors. In order to enhance transparency and consistency, a format called the upstream-operating-downstream framework (UOD) is proposed for reporting basic technology-related data regarding GHG issues including a clear distinction between direct emissions from waste management technologies, indirect upstream (use of energy and materials) and indirect downstream (production of energy, delivery of secondary materials) activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and energy insecurity are grave threats to the stability and sustainability of human society. This paper considers the meaning of this globally manifest, yet regionally differentiated, ecological threat for Australia's urban system. It also considers the twin ecological peril of oil depletion, whose impacts may intensify to great effect the social stresses likely to emerge as climates warm. The paper intervenes in the debate that transfixes contemporary Australian urbanism: the sustainability of the suburban form in which most Australians live. A similar if not identical debate exists in North America and parts of western Europe. These discussions may be overemphasising the environmental significance of urban form and failing to apprehend the deeper socio-cultural forces that drive the (over)consumption of nature. Planning thought and practice need to loosen the grip of physical determinism on their environmental comprehension if they are to comprehend accurately the sources of, and solutions to, ecological threat. New urban scientific evidence suggests that planning's principal role in the fight against warming will be one of adaptation not mitigation. That is to say, there is no simple 'spatial fix' for overconsumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), a large international research programme, served to set the research agenda of a number of environmental sciences around the issue of global warming and global change. This paper examines the impact of the interdisciplinary cooperation within the IGBP on ecology and the ecologists' response. Ecology was an integral part of the IGBP form the beginning, yet it was sometimes in uneasy cohabitation with the other sciences involved. The issues of global warming and global change posed opportunities and challenges to ecology. They posed opportunities because an important cause emerged, with promises of exciting new (space) technologies and new funds for the environmental science. They posed challenges, because by aligning itself to sciences that study the earth system as a whole, ecology was invited simplicity to bracket its focus on the specificity of local ecosystems, that is , to give up up ecology's traditional focus on fields studies of plant and animal communities. Any aim in this paper is to place th opportunities that global change research offered to ecology in the context of changes within the field that were already underway. Power relationship between disciplines did not give ecology an upper hand vis-a vis the other earth sciences, but ecologists were able nevertheless to redefine subtly the notion of the global nevertheless to redefine subtly the notion of the global [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While weather changes from day to day, climate change occurs on a time scale far in excess of a human lifetime. Climate had been changing dramatically even before humans evolved on Earth. Notwithstanding this, there is evidence supporting an accelerated global warming trend over the last century. Scientists agree that much of the global warming can be attributed to increases in certain greenhouse gases, notably water vapour and carbon dioxide. What scientists disagree over is what amount of the greenhouse effect is due to human activity. This paper's purpose is to quantify, through computer simulations, the increased cooling loads imposed by recognized climate change models and give designers a framework within which to set goals for new building efficiency measures. The paper does not include proposals for methods of reducing energy consumption in buildings – instead, it demonstrates the probable impact global warming trends have on buildings' cooling loads and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A typical meteorological year (TMY) for Poland was developed in 2004, on the basis of climatic data collected from 1971 to 2000. Due to the observed tendency of global warming, the buildings’ energy performance obtained with the use of TMY may differ from the actual heating and cooling demand. This research compares energy demand calculated using TMY and climatic data collected from 2001 to 2012. Calculations were made by means of a simulation computer program, designed for dynamic analyses of buildings and installation systems. The analyses concerned typical living quarters in a multifamily residential building located in Warsaw. According to the results, TMY is useful for estimating the heating demand of existing buildings. Cooling demand calculated with the use of TMY was, however, up to 37% lower in comparison with the mean cooling demand for subsequent years. This may distort the energy needs and indoor environment conditions in summer, and create discomfort while using existing and new buildings.Practical application: The paper presents comparison between energy demand calculated with the use of typical meteorological year (TMY) based on the climatic data from the period of 1971 to 2000, and real climatic data from subsequent 12 years, 2001–2012. There is substantial difference in the results presenting cooling demand in buildings evaluated with the use of both datasets. Unless national energy certification procedures are updated, this may cause serious faults in building design, due to incorrect assessment of internal conditions in new and existing buildings, and higher than expected energy use in summer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the risk of projected post-2050s overheating in existing, retrofitted and new-build dwellings in the United Kingdom. As shown in the previous research, passive measures may not be sufficient in mitigating overheating risk. Therefore, mechanical cooling technologies that may be deployed to ‘adapt’ to a warming climate are tested for energy and CO2 implications. For retrofits, heating demand is projected to remain dominant, whereas in post-2016 new-build, greater cooling system efficiency will be important. Thermal mass is shown to reduce future cooling load. The heat recovery element of mechanical ventilation with heat recovery may be rendered unnecessary in super-efficient homes. Ceiling fans coupled with natural ventilation may be sufficient in providing thermal comfort in the north of England. Ultimately, not planning for future overheating and cooling systems could create a new performance gap in design, construction and occupant behaviour.Practical application: Overheating, already experienced in dwellings throughout the United Kingdom and projected to increase in occurrence, should be considered in all new design and retrofit. Dwellings designed to meet thermal comfort performance targets may be at risk of non-compliance as a result of a warming climate. Furthermore, dwellings designed to meet energy performance targets may be at risk of non-compliance as a result of potential need for cooling systems. The findings have implications for policy-making in relation to decarbonisation of the electricity grid, implementation of the Green Deal and upgrading building regulations to future-proof new and existing housing against a warming climate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the development of a multi-phase/multi-criteria trajectory optimization framework that has been conceived to support the synthesis of green mission profiles that will allow aircraft to fly optimum flight paths with the lowest possible noise and emissions. The proposed multi-phase/multi-criteria framework is not only suitable to formulate trajectory optimization problems in which noise, emissions, or global warming effects can be simultaneously considered, but also provides the possibility to implement air traffic management constraints that apply to certain flight stages. A case study involving a trip from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to Munich Franz Josef Strauss International Airport is presented to illustrate the synthesis of green trajectories and to demonstrate the potential for improving the environmental footprint. The optimization results bear out that optimizing with respect to noise can be very rewarding in terms of reducing the local noise impact, without significantly affecting the overall flight-economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increases in the frequency of large to extreme rainfall events are widely predicted with global warming, but evidence from the humid tropics is hampered by a paucity of long-term data. This paper assesses changes in daily rainfall magnitude–frequency and their geomorphological consequences in the equatorial environment of northern Borneo using (1) rare daily rainfall data series for 1906–2012 assembled from archival and current sources and (2) geomorphological process data from the Danum Valley area of eastern Sabah. Rainstorm changes are explored using (1) analysis of frequencies of daily falls above threshold values, (2) extreme-value analysis comparing differences in locally weighted scatterplot smoothing (LOESS) best-fit curves for successive 20-year periods and (3) a novel approach constructing graphs of long-term change in daily falls of 1- to 10-year return period derived from overlapping 20-year LOESS curves. Substantial increases, some statistically significant, since 1980 (intensifying since 1999) are detected at most stations in (1) the frequency of daily falls ≥50, 100 and 200 mm and (2) the magnitudes of daily falls with return periods of 0.2–5.0 years. The scale and temporal patterns of historical change vary with (1) coastal aspect and (2) different parts of the return period spectrum. The period 1921–1940 exhibited higher rainstorm magnitude–frequency than 1952–1979 and demonstrates the dangers of simple deductions derived from post-1960 data comparisons. Geomorphological responses indicated by long-term monitoring at Danum (eastern Sabah), where there has been a marked upswing in heavy rainfalls since 1999, include a threefold increase in slopewash rates, more frequent high flows and higher sediment loads. The very high soil pipe sediment yields, rates of pipe roof collapse and stream channel extension recorded from 2002 to 2012 in pipe systems at Danum may be a consequence of this upswing. Increased landsliding is also a likely consequence, exacerbated in logged, agricultural and urban terrain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in other countries, public authorities in the US have initiated an array of experiments collectively designed to mitigate the threat posed by global warming. This paper considers the implementation of global climate protection in the Seattle metropolitan region of Washington State. Specifically, the discussion focuses on regulatory, institutional and investment changes within the handful of municipalities formally pledged to address carbon goals as articulated by their statutory participation in the US Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement. While enrollment in such networked spaces has created crucial momentum for practical policy action, the hardest work is just starting: namely, transforming the physical, institutional, economic and cultural constitution of actually existing political communities. Interrogating new data gleaned from recent research on local ‘cool city’ developments, the discussion assesses overall progress within the context of broader debates in the extant literature on local planning and policy for global climate action. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper adopts a technique common in the dynamical climate modelling literature, that of pattern scaling, and applies it to previously available statistically downscaled station level data for Ireland for two climatically relevant variables, that of temperature and precipitation. This technique allows for the rapid development of climate scenarios for additional emissions scenarios not previously available from the GCM modelling centres. Having derived the end of century (2080s) change in both these variables for four marker emissions scenarios (A1FI, A2, B2, B1), regional response rates, or the regional rate of warming per °C global warming at each station, were calculated. The estimated ranges in regional responses at each station were then compared to regional response rates for the Irish ‘grid box’ derived from a larger sample of 14 GCMs, in order to determine if the calculated response rates were illustrative of a wider suite of GCMs. A Monte Carlo (MC) resampling approach was then employed to sample regional response rates for selected stations and for different estimates of future warming. On the basis of the MC approach, probability distribution functions (pdfs) of simulated changes in temperature and precipitation were constructed and compared to the original statistically downscaled data. The methodology and results presented represent a significant contribution to the traditional approach of statistical downscaling through the development of associated likelihoods, rather than just a change in the mean value. While the methodology presented should enable the rapid development of probabilistic based climate projections, based on a limited availability of downscaled climate scenarios, caution needs to be exercised in the interpretation of the results. While they provide a basis for risk or policy assessment, estimates of the level of risk are not independent of the method employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual communication is a critical but frequently under-estimated contributor to the ‘social and cultural life’ of environmental issues. This paper uses both content and discourse analysis to examine how visual communication is deployed in print media coverage of climate change issues in Canada. The Canadian case is internationally significant, given that Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol but has since become obstructionist on the global stage. Our analysis, which focuses on image-language interactions, leads us to conclude that climate change is being inconsistently narrated to Canadians in this regard. While the power of visual communication comes from its ability to blend fact and emotion, to engage audiences, and to add narrative complexity to linguistic claims (and vice versa), we find instead a profound disjuncture between images and text in climate change coverage. In this case, visual and linguistic communication tend to pull in different narrative directions, advancing unrelated and sometimes contradictory claims that frequently confuse different aspects and positions on climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The notion of a political economic opportunity structure not only provides a sociological description of capitalism’s economic and ecological crises but also connects these crises to radical social and environmental movements, which must confront both political and economic institutions to bring about change. Until now, the theoretical foundation that the political economic opportunity structure (PEOS) uses to explain the perpetration of injustice has conditionally accepted ecological modernization theory and the classless notion of circularity described in risk theory. By constructively criticizing the theoretical foundation of the PEOS, this paper primarily emphasizes the class structure of the economic and ecological crises of capitalism as the context in which social and environmental movements exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent rapid mass loss of mountain glaciers in response to climate warming has been reported for high and low latitudes all over the Earth. The paper analyses and discusses the recent evolution of a representative glacierized group within the Italian Alps, the Piazzi—Dosdè, where small glaciers are experiencing considerable retreat and shrinking. We analysed aerial photos to calculate area and geometry changes in the time window 1954—2003, and glaciological and geomorphological surveys were also performed. The estimated area change during 1954—2003 was —3.97 km2 (—51% of the area coverage in 1954). Area reduction increased more recently: area change during 1991—2003 (12 years) was —1.74 km2, against —0.67 km2 during 1981—1991 (10 years), and —1.57 km 2 during 1954—1981 (27 years). Moreover, analysis of the most recent orthophotos acquired during the summer of 2003 under exceptional conditions (i.e. total absence of snow cover) allowed observation and mapping of changes affecting glacier shape and morphology, including growing rock outcrops, tongue separations, formation of proglacial lakes, increasing supraglacial debris and collapse structures. Such processes cause positive feedbacks that accelerate further glacier disintegration once they appear. From a geodynamical perspective, the Dosdè Piazzi is now experiencing transition from a glacial system to a paraglacial one; areas where in the past the shaping and driving factors were glaciers are now subject to the action of melting water, slope evolution and periglacial processes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Accounting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from waste landfilling is summarized with the focus on processes and technical data for a number of different landfilling technologies: open dump (which was included as the worst-case-scenario), conventional landfills with flares and with energy recovery, and landfills receiving low-organic-carbon waste. The results showed that direct emissions of GHG from the landfill systems (primarily dispersive release of methane) are the major contributions to the GHG accounting, up to about 1000 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1 for the open dump, 300 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1 for conventional landfilling of mixed waste and 70 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1 for low-organic-carbon waste landfills. The load caused by indirect, upstream emissions from provision of energy and materials to the landfill was low, here estimated to be up to 16 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1. On the other hand, utilization of landfill gas for electricity generation contributed to major savings, in most cases, corresponding to about half of the load caused by direct GHG emission from the landfill. However, this saving can vary significantly depending on what the generated electricity substitutes for. Significant amounts of biogenic carbon may still be stored within the landfill body after 100 years, which here is counted as a saved GHG emission. With respect to landfilling of mixed waste with energy recovery, the net, average GHG accounting ranged from about -70 to 30 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1, obtained by summing the direct and indirect (upstream and downstream) emissions and accounting for stored biogenic carbon as a saving. However, if binding of biogenic carbon was not accounted for, the overall GHG load would be in the range of 60 to 300 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1. This paper clearly shows that electricity generation as well as accounting of stored biogenic carbon are crucial to the accounting of GHG of waste landfilling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Important greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to waste incineration and co-combustion of waste were identified and considered relative to critical aspects such as: the contents of biogenic and fossil carbon, N2O emissions, fuel and material consumptions at the plants, energy recovery, and solid residues generated. GHG contributions were categorized with respect to direct emissions from the combustion plant as well as indirect upstream contributions (e.g. provision of fuels and materials) and indirect downstream contributions (e.g. substitution of electricity and heat produced elsewhere). GHG accounting was done per tonne of waste received at the plant. The content of fossil carbon in the input waste, for example as plastic, was found to be critical for the overall level of the GHG emissions, but also the energy conversion efficiencies were essential. The emission factors for electricity provision (also substituted electricity) affected the indirect downstream emissions with a factor of 3-9 depending on the type of electricity generation assumed. Provision of auxiliary fuels, materials and resources corresponded to up to 40% of the direct emission from the plants (which were 347-371 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1 of waste for incineration and 735-803 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1 of waste for co-combustion). Indirect downstream savings were within the range of -480 to -1373 kg CO2- eq. tonne-1 of waste for incineration and within -181 to -2607 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1 of waste for co-combustion. N2O emissions and residue management did not appear to play significant roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to plastic waste recycling were evaluated with respect to three management alternatives: recycling of clean, single-type plastic, recycling of mixed/contaminated plastic, and use of plastic waste as fuel in industrial processes. Source-separated plastic waste was received at a material recovery facility (MRF) and processed for granulation and subsequent downstream use. In the three alternatives, plastic was assumed to be substituting virgin plastic in new products, wood in low-strength products (outdoor furniture, fences, etc.), and coal or fuel oil in the case of energy utilization. GHG accounting was organized in terms of indirect upstream emissions (e.g. provision of energy, fuels, and materials), direct emissions at the MRF (e.g. fuel combustion), and indirect downstream emissions (e.g. avoided emissions from production of virgin plastic, wood, or coal/oil). Combined, upstream and direct emissions were estimated to be roughly between 5 and 600 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1 of plastic waste depending on treatment at the MRF and CO2 emissions from electricity production. Potential downstream savings arising from substitution of virgin plastic, wood, and energy fuels were estimated to be around 60- 1600 kg CO2-eq. tonne-1 of plastic waste depending on substitution ratios and CO2 emissions from electricity production. Based on the reviewed data, it was concluded that substitution of virgin plastic should be preferred. If this is not viable due to a mixture of different plastic types and/or contamination, the plastic should be used for energy utilization. Recycling of plastic waste for substitution of other materials such as wood provided no savings with respect to global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Old Ämmässuo Landfill (Espoo, Finland) covers an area of 52 hectares and contains about 10 million tonnes of waste that was landfilled between 1987 and 2007. The majority of this waste was mixed, of which about 57% originated from households. This paper aims at describing the management of the Old Ämmässuo Landfill throughout its operational lifetime (1987-2007), and at developing an environmental evaluation based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) using the EASEWASTE-model. The assessment criteria evaluate specific categories of impact, including standard impact categories, toxicity-related impact categories and an impact categorized as spoiled groundwater resources (SGR). With respect to standard and toxicity-related impact categories, the LCA results show that substantial impact potentials are estimated for global warming (GW), ozone depletion (OD), human toxicity via soil (HTs) and ecotoxicity in water chronic (ETwc). The largest impact potential was found for SGR and amounted to 57.6 person equivalent (PE) per tonne of landfilled waste. However, the SGR impact may not be viewed as a significant issue in Finland as the drinking water is mostly supplied from surface water bodies. Overall, the results demonstrate that gas management has great importance to the environmental performance of the Old Ämmässuo Landfill. However, several chemicals related to gas composition (especially trace compounds) and specific emissions from on-site operations were not available or were not measured and were therefore taken from the literature. Measurement campaigns and field investigations should be undertaken in order to obtain a more robust and comprehensive dataset that can be used in the LCA-modelling, before major improvements regarding landfill management are finalized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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On the basis of sediment and pollen analyses of a radiocarbon-dated sediment sequence from Lake Joux in the Swiss Jura Mountains (west-central Europe), this paper presents a high-resolution record of lake-level and vegetation changes for the last millennium. The lake-level record makes it possible to determine that lowstands of the water-table dominated at c. AD 1200-1400, and from 1720 onward, with interruptions by short-lived rise events at c. AD 1340 and 1840. Highstands prevailed at c. AD 1100, and around AD 1450, 1550 and 1700. The comparison of the Joux lake-level record with a solar irradiance record based on cosmogenic nucleides supports the hypothesis of a major solar forcing of climate variations in west-central Europe over the last millennium. In agreement with other palaeohydrological records established in Western Europe and in the central North Atlantic Ocean, the Joux lake-level record suggests that, on a multicentennial scale, the period of the 'Little Ice Age' coincided in the European mid-latitudes with wetter climatic conditions, and probably with an increase in summer precipitation. Variations in the hydrological cycle appear to have been associated with changes in the general atmospheric circulation pattern, probably coupled with variations in oceanic circulation and solar activity. The Joux record also points to changes in water resources expected to result from ongoing global warming. Finally, despite the severe climatic conditions which prevail in the Joux Valley, the human impact history at Lake Joux over the last millennium seems to reflect political choices and economic context more than climatic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development relies on the eco-efficient use of all flows in society; more value created out of each resource unit. Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) can be used for treatment of wet organic waste. The technology has been under development for over 20 years but has not yet been fully commercialized. SCWO allows for complete oxidation of all organics in sewage sludge and almost complete recovery of the inherent energy, essentially without harmful emissions. In this paper, a life-cycle assessment (LCA) of sewage sludge SCWO (Aqua-Critox) is presented and the results are compared with LCA results for other sludge handling options: agricultural use, co-incineration with municipal solid waste, incineration with subsequent phosphorus extraction (Bio-Con) and sludge fractionation with phosphorus recovery (Cambi-KREPRO). For SCWO, beneficial utilization of the heat of reaction is of crucial importance for the outcome. The electricity consumed by pumping and the nitrous oxide produced are other important parameters. The best sludge handling option from an environmental point of view depends on what aspect is considered more important in the impact assessment. Regarding global warming, the energy recovery methods perform better than agricultural use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mediterranean ecosystems contain some of the highest levels of plant diversity of any region on Earth and are amongst those believed to be most at risk from the consequences of global warming. Yet such ecosystems are not static and have responded to environmental changes at a variety of scales and from a variety of causes, particularly climatic and anthropogenic. The purpose of this paper is to review recent research on environmental change and ecosystem response. Long-term records are available to analyse changes over glacial-interglacial cycles, while high resolution records show the sensitivity and coupling of Mediterranean, North Atlantic and Greenland records. For the Holocene, there is continued debate about the relative impact of anthropogenic activity, but there is also increasing recognition that mediterraneantype ecosystems should not be regarded as fragile, degraded landscapes, but are disturbanceadapted. Nevertheless, conservation measures face increasing challenges from contemporary climate change and human pressures. Some insights into the identification of refugial areas, either in glacial times or for present-day conservation purposes, come from molecular biogeographical studies of past faunal and floral distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an up-to-date review of instrumentally-recorded, seasonal, surface temperature change across the land and marine regions of the world during the twentieth century. This is the first part of a two part series. The second part will deal with the interpretation of proxy-climate data in terms of large-scale hemispheric or global-scale temperature averages for the Holocene.In Part 1, we review the uncertainties associated with combining land and marine instrumental records to produce regional-average series. The surface air temperature of the world has warmed 0.5°C since the middle of the nineteenth century. The warming in the Northern Hemisphere only occurred in winter, spring and autumn. Summers are now no warmer than in the 1860s and 1870s. The same half-degree warming is seen in all seasons in the Southern Hemisphere.Spatial patterns of temperature anomalies during two warm decades, the 1930s and 1980s, all vary from season to season. Temperatures during the 1980s were by far the warmest in the last 140 years. Though most areas of the world experienced above normal temperatures, the variability from season to season was notable in the Northern Hemisphere where much of the warmth was in winter and spring over northern and central Asia and northwestern North America. Almost all of the Southern Hemisphere was warmer during these years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Previous research has tied the journalistic norm of 'balance' to an overarching tendency to polarize the climate debate between realists and contrarians. This study uses conversation analysis to advance our knowledge about how climate changes are debated verbally in practice. It builds upon a corpus of current televised climate change panel debates in Denmark. The corpus confirms a documented turn from debating if global warming is a fact to debating what we should do to reduce emissions. Analyses detail two methods, which the interviewer invokes to administer turn-taking: (a) stand-alone next speaker reference and (b) prefatory address term + interrogatives that implicitly project disagreement. These methods help interviewers sustain their formal neutrality. But the study also finds that perspectives are orchestrated to (re)produce multiple polarizations between representatives of different interests and ideologies, for example activists versus business representatives, which might not be helpful in solving the climate crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The metrics used in environmental management are performative. That is, the tools deployed to classify and measure the natural world interact with the things they were designed to observe. The idea of performativity also captures the way these interactions shape or distort the governance activities that metrics are used to inform. The performativity of metrics reveals how mundane practices of measurement and auditing are inscribed with substantial power. This has proven particularly true for the global warming metrics, like GWP100, that are central to the management of anthropogenic climate change. Greenhouse gases are materially heterogenous, and the metrics used to commensurate their various warming impacts influence the distribution of both culpability and capital in climate policy and markets. The publication of a new warming metric, GWP* (or GWP Star), has generated a modest scientific controversy, as a diverse cast of stakeholders recognize this performativity seek to influence the metrological regime under which they live. We analyse this controversy, particularly as it unfolded in the fractious discourse around sustainable food and farming, to develop the concept of reflexive performativity : where actors are anticipatory and strategic in their engagement with the metrics that are used to govern their lives. We situate this idea in relation to, and in tentative evidential support of, the concept of reflexive modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar Radiation Management (SRM) has been suggested as a technique to counteract some of the changes expected as a result of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW).1 It has been suggested2 that SRM could be carried out by commercially motivated actors. This process has been envisaged as using the Voluntary Carbon Offset (VCO) market as a mechanism for monetising the SRM process, due to the secondary effects of SRM on the carbon cycle.3 Current VCO customers are typically businesses: those looking to be ‘carbon neutral’ or reselling offsets alongside high-carbon goods and services (for example, airlines). Other potential VCO customers include states, or philanthropists. In this short scoping paper we provide a broad overview the issues of regulation and legitimacy, as may be applicable to the activities of future commercial SRM actors. We discuss the need for a two-pronged regulatory approach, encompassing first legal and corporate regulation and second, scientific and technical regulation. In conclusion, we identify differing regulatory requirements, according to whether the intended effect on the climate system of the SRM industry, or of individual firms, can be regarded as de minimis. We additionally suggest the use of a two-tier marketplace structure in order to ensure regulatory demands can be efficiently and transparently enacted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study utilises social representations theory to explore common sense conceptualisations of global warming risk using an in-depth, qualitative methodology. Fifty-six members of a British, London-based 2008 public were initially asked to draw or write four spontaneous “first thoughts or feelings” about global warming. These were then explored via an open-ended, exploratory interview. The analysis revealed that first thoughts, either drawn or written, often mirrored the images used by the British press to depict global warming visually. Thus in terms of media framings, it was their visual rather than their textual content that was spontaneously available for their audiences. Furthermore, an in-depth exploration of interview data revealed that global warming was structured around three themata: self/other, natural/unnatural and certainty/uncertainty, reflecting the complex and often contradictory nature of common sense thinking in relation to risk issues. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions emanating from waste management practices in five Norwegian military camps were assessed. The GHG emission accounting practices examined included fuel provision upstream of a material recovery facility (MRF), operational activities at the MRF, and downstream processes. The latter means recycling of waste compared to primary production using virgin materials, or the incineration of waste with energy recovery compared to heating based on the average energy mix for both EU and Norway. The results show that the operational activities at the MRF cause more GHG emissions than the provision of fuel upstream of the MRF (116 vs. 16–21 tonnes CO2-eq., respectively). Furthermore, the downstream activities provided far greater avoidance of GHG emissions than the load caused by upstream activities and the activities at the MRF. Recycling proves to be beneficial over incineration of waste when compared to the EU energy mix (savings of −257 tonnes CO2-eq.), and the advantage is even larger when compared to the average energy mix for Norway (savings of −779 tonnes CO2-eq.). In conclusion, the results show that sorting of mixed waste at military camp collection sites followed by recycling of the separated fractions at MRF would result in significant avoidance of GHG emissions, compared to the current practice of incineration with energy recovery of the mixed waste. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article examines the consideration of an ecosystem's benefit to humans, known as ecosystem services, within the scope of scientific studies of degraded peatlands and peatland restoration. One example of such a benefit is indicated as the balance of greenhouse gases and their role in global climate regulation. The author indicates that the subject was not commonly addressed in the literature examined.