scholarly journals Sustainable Biofuel Policies: Challenges and ethical considerations

Bioethica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Zinovia Tsitrouli
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Rural Development ◽  
Alternative Fuels ◽  
International Level ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Commercial Scale ◽  
Biofuel Policies ◽  
Conflicting Interests ◽  
Made In

Over the last few decades, after the emergence of biofuels at commercial scale in the 1970s, several policies, at domestic or international level, have promoted these alternative fuels, citing mainly three supporting reasons: their potential to fight energy insecurity, ability to alleviate climate change through decreasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere -compared to conventional fuels- and capacity to promote agriculture and rural development. But, ever since the beginning of their expansion, it became clear that biofuels are not as sustainable as originally thought. And since policies and national legislative frameworks are the main instruments guiding biofuels’ development, this article aims to focus on answering the question whether current biofuel policies are efficient in ensuring sustainability, while promoting biofuels. If this is found not to be the case, then an attempt will be made in order to examine the relative existing gaps, to discuss the potential conflicting interests and ultimately to proceed with recommending adequate alterations in legislations. Ethical dimensions will also be discussed, which could provide some insightful considerations for upcoming biofuel legislations.

scholarly journals LONG TERM IMPLICATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 340-350
Author(s):  
Ewubare Dennis Brown ◽  
Ajisafe Femi Sammy
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Rural Development ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Rural Water Supply ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Rural Water ◽  
Per Capita

This paper examined the effects of climate change on rural development in Nigeria. In this paper, rural development was measured by the percentage of the population with access to improved water supply. On the other hand, the measures of climate change employed in this paper are precipitations, variations in temperature and per capita carbon dioxide emissions. Data on the variables were sourced from the World Development Indicators (WDI) and the analytical techniques include descriptive statistics, unit root test, Hansen cointegration test and Fully-Modified Least Squares (FMOLS). The Kwiatkowski Phillips Schmidt and Shin (KPSS) unit test results show that the variables are mixed integrated with combinations of I(0) and I(1). It was observed from the Hansen test for cointegration that the test statistic with probability value (0.192) indicates that the variables are cointegrated. This suggests that the null hypothesis of parameter stability cannot be rejected. It was found from the estimated cointegrating regression model that precipitation and temperature are significant in influencing changes in access to improved water supply in rural Nigeria. Whilst precipitations negatively influenced access to rural water supply, changes in temperature enhanced rural water supply. The negative effects of precipitations on rural water supply could be attributed to the flooding usually associated with precipitations which tend to contaminate the various water sources in the rural areas. On the other hand, per capita carbon dioxide emissions do not significantly affect access to improved water supply in rural area. Given the findings, it was recommended for policy makers to adopt proactive and innovative approaches by synergizing with the relevant stakeholders to significantly address the problem of climate change and improve opportunities for rural development.

scholarly journals The Technological Abyss: Heideggerian Ontology and Climate Change

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-76
Author(s):  
Aaron Mazo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Reserves ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Economic Context ◽  
Ethical Decisions ◽  
Made In ◽  
The Way

 Whenever a decision is made in a social, political, or economic context, it is implicitly grounded in an ethical outlook. But where do these outlooks come from? To investigate this query, I examine the basis for ethical decisions regarding technology, focusing specifically on geoengineering responses to climate change. Subsequently, I argue that ethical considerations concerning climate change, and their corresponding practical decisions, cannot be reliably made without sufficient intelligibility regarding the objects and entities these decisions pertain to. To achieve this, I employ a Heideggerian phenomenological framework through which being affords intelligibility. Doing so elucidates fundamental inconsistencies in the way humans interact with technology. We are caught up in what Heidegger calls enframing, the representation of beings as energy reserves. This is the ground on which our ethical claims are based, but representation cannot afford actuality. When things are represented in this way, truth is set aside in favour of will, and intelligibility is lost. The goal, then—if we wish our ethical decisions to be legitimate—must be to gain intelligibility. We must therefore free ourselves from enframing and look toward being. We cannot, as Heidegger says, affect enframing’s removal, but we can prepare ourselves for such a change. Only once this change occurs, can our relationship to technology be intelligible.      

Climate-forced changes of bio-productivity of Belorussian terrestrial ecosystems

2019 ◽  
pp. 77-88
Author(s):  
S. A. Lysenko
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Precipitation Amount ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Vegetation Period ◽  
Climatic Trend ◽  
Vegetation Growth ◽  
Current Century ◽  
The Impact

The spatial and temporal particularities of Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) changes over territory of Belarus in the current century and their relationship with climate change were investigated. The rise of NDVI is observed at approximately 84% of the Belarus area. The statistically significant growth of NDVI has exhibited at nearly 35% of the studied area (t-test at 95% confidence interval), which are mainly forests and undeveloped areas. Croplands vegetation index is largely descending. The main factor of croplands bio-productivity interannual variability is precipitation amount in vegetation period. This factor determines more than 60% of the croplands NDVI dispersion. The long-term changes of NDVI could be explained by combination of two factors: photosynthesis intensifying action of carbon dioxide and vegetation growth suppressing action of air warming with almost unchanged precipitation amount. If the observed climatic trend continues the croplands bio-productivity in many Belarus regions could be decreased at more than 20% in comparison with 2000 year. The impact of climate change on the bio-productivity of undeveloped lands is only slightly noticed on the background of its growth in conditions of rising level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

scholarly journals It’s Our Fault: A Global Comparison of Different Ways of Explaining Climate Change

Human Ecology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Schnegg ◽  
Coral Iris O’Brian ◽  
Inga Janina Sievert
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Global Comparison ◽  
Local Phenomenon ◽  
World Regions ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Specific Factors

AbstractInternational surveys suggest people increasingly agree the climate is changing and humans are the cause. One reading of this is that people have adopted the scientific point of view. Based on a sample of 28 ethnographic cases we argue that this conclusion might be premature. Communities merge scientific explanations with local knowledge in hybrid ways. This is possible because both discourses blame humans as the cause of the changes they observe. However, the specific factors or agents blamed differ in each case. Whereas scientists identify carbon dioxide producers in particular world regions, indigenous communities often blame themselves, since, in many lay ontologies, the weather is typically perceived as a local phenomenon, which rewards and punishes people for their actions. Thus, while survey results show approval of the scientific view, this agreement is often understood differently and leads to diverging ways of allocating meaning about humans and the weather.

scholarly journals Czech Building Stock: Renovation Wave Scenarios and Potential for CO2 Savings until 2050

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2455
Author(s):  
Antonín Lupíšek ◽  
Tomáš Trubačík ◽  
Petr Holub
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Emission Factors ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
National Debate ◽  
Energy Consumptions ◽  
Change Mitigation

One of the major anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gases is the operation of building stock. Improving its energy efficiency has the potential to significantly contribute to achieving climate change mitigation targets. The purpose of this study was to roughly estimate such potential for the operation of the national building stock of Czechia to steer the national debate on the development of related national plans. The estimation is based on a simplified energy model of the Czech building stock that consists of sub-models of residential and nonresidential building stocks, for which their future energy consumptions, shares of energy carriers and sources, and emission factors were modeled in four scenarios. Uncertainties from the approximation of the emission factors were investigated in a sensitivity analysis. The results showed that the operation of the Czech building stock in 2016 totaled 36.9 Mt CO2, which represented 34.6% of the total national carbon dioxide emissions. The four building stock scenarios could produce reductions in the carbon dioxide emissions of between 28% and 93% by 2050, when also considering on-side production from photovoltaics. The implementation of the most ambitious scenario would represent a drop in national CO2 yearly emissions by 43.2% by 2050 (compared to 2016).

scholarly journals Sustainable healthcare – Time for ‘Green Podiatry’

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Margaret Evans
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Greenhouse Gases ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Allied Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Allied Health Professionals ◽  
Foot Health

Abstract Background Healthcare aims to promote good health and yet demonstrably contributes to climate change, which is purported to be ‘the biggest global health threat of the 21st century’. This is happening now, with healthcare as an industry representing 4.4% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Main body Climate change promotes health deficits from many angles; however, primarily it is the use of fossil fuels which increases atmospheric carbon dioxide (also nitrous oxide, and methane). These greenhouse gases prevent the earth from cooling, resulting in the higher temperatures and rising sea levels, which then cause ‘wild weather’ patterns, including floods, storms, and droughts. Particular vulnerability is afforded to those already health compromised (older people, pregnant women, children, wider health co-morbidities) as well as populations closer to equatorial zones, which encompasses many low-and-middle-income-countries. The paradox here, is that poorer nations by spending less on healthcare, have lower carbon emissions from health-related activity, and yet will suffer most from global warming effects, with scant resources to off-set the increasing health care needs. Global recognition has forged the Paris agreement, the United Nations sustainable developments goals, and the World Health Organisation climate change action plan. It is agreed that most healthcare impact comes from consumption of energy and resources, and the production of greenhouse gases into the environment. Many professional associations of medicine and allied health professionals are advocating for their members to lead on environmental sustainability; the Australian Podiatry Association is incorporating climate change into its strategic direction. Conclusion Podiatrists, as allied health professionals, have wide community engagement, and hence, can model positive environmental practices, which may be effective in changing wider community behaviours, as occurred last century when doctors stopped smoking. As foot health consumers, our patients are increasingly likely to expect more sustainable practices and products, including ‘green footwear’ options. Green Podiatry, as a part of sustainable healthcare, directs us to be responsible energy and product consumers, and reduce our workplace emissions.

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