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1. ECOLOGICAL POLICY MEASURES AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT.

Author

Constantinescu, Dana, Nicolae, Marian, Nicolae, Floarea, Grigore, Violeta, and Turcu, Simona Laura

Subjects
*ENVIRONMENTAL policy, *ENVIRONMENTAL impact analysis, *BIODIVERSITY, *POLLUTION, *SUSTAINABILITY, *CLIMATE change
Abstract

The geographic origin of pollution is disconnected from its scale or place of occurrence, and some environmental problems could have impact easily on the entire planet. Currently it is noticeable a continuous agravation of pollution and a change in the basics of ecological problems. Local pollution is replaced by global issues such as climate change or biodiversity loss. The paper attempted to reveal the direction of policy measures that target sustainability within a global context. The paper makes an incursion in the field of policy measures aimed to correct the environmental relations of the contemporary society and assess the anticipative and the strategies of integration by referring to level of greening occuring throughout the economy and the social behavior. Therefore, many environmentally harmfull processes continued and still are continuing to date making the policy agenda more and more crowded and reliefing the urgency of action, which is one of the main concerns today. Meanwhile, in the economy there are symptoms of "greening", although confusion is still a significant issue among companies that attempt to change beneath the pressure of legal, financial, and information strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2017
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2. Type and number of environmental impact categories used in livestock life cycle assessment: A systematic review.

Author

McClelland, S.C., Arndt, C., Gordon, D.R., and Thoma, G.

Subjects
*LIVESTOCK productivity, *CLIMATE change, *ENVIRONMENTAL impact analysis, *LIFE cycles (Biology), *BIODIVERSITY
Abstract

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an important tool to evaluate environmental ‘hot spots’ in livestock systems and recommend production improvements. However, it is common for livestock LCA to investigate only a narrow subset of environmental impacts to simplify results for decision-makers, which makes it difficult to fully understand the tradeoffs among environmental impacts and identify the most relevant mitigation options. We completed a systematic review of the livestock LCA literature to better understand the impact categories included and the progress made towards more comprehensive LCA. Our search of publications between 2000 and 2016 identified 173 relevant peer-reviewed papers. Nearly all the publications (98%) included climate change as an impact category and almost one-third of the publications (28%) focused solely on that one category. Biodiversity, ionizing radiation, and particulate matter were the least common categories addressed. Cattle LCA, including dairy or beef, were the livestock species most frequently evaluated. Our analysis shows that while the number of multi-category livestock LCA (LCA with 4 or more impact categories) increased over time, LCA including 1–3 impact categories (which we define as “simplified LCA”) increased at a higher rate than multi-category LCA. Simplified LCA therefore remain the most prevalent in the literature. Publications that included multiple impact categories were better able to identify environmental impact tradeoffs among livestock production systems and management scenarios. To compare results across livestock LCA studies, it is necessary to increase the standardization of system boundaries, functional units, impact frameworks and mandatory inputs. The optional steps of normalization and weighting in the life cycle impact assessment can also help decision-makers prioritize which environmental impacts to address. More work that includes a greater number of impact categories in livestock LCA is sorely needed to more fully understand and to harmonize the communication of the environmental performance of livestock production systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2018
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