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The role of women in sustainable energy development
This paper explores the question of how sustainable energy development--specifically, decentralized renewable energy technologies--can complement and benefit from the goal of increasing women's role in development. It is based on a paper that was originally presented at the World Renewable Energy Congress-V held in Florence, Italy, in September 1998, as a contribution to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's program on gender and energy
Welfare Implications of Community Forest Plantations in Developing Countries: The Orissa Social Forestry Project
Community forest plantations are a common intervention in developing countries. We use household and remote sensing data from Orissa, India, to estimate welfare effects of community forest plantations, in terms of the value of decreased collection times plantations afford users. A selection model, accounting for possible jointness in site location and productivity, is used to estimate collection production functions for different household labor categories in natural and community forests. Two measures of an opportunity cost of time are used to determine welfare effects of time saved due to community forests. We find access to community forests is important to marginal productivity of different labor categories, but to different degrees, highlighting the need to disaggregate household data when analyzing these interventions. We also find substantial welfare improvements from time savings for many households and villages. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.
NIST Standards for Measurement, Instrument Calibration, and Quantification of Gaseous Atmospheric Compounds
There are many gas
phase compounds present in the atmosphere that
affect and influence the earth’s climate. These compounds absorb
and emit radiation, a process which is the fundamental cause of the
greenhouse effect. The major greenhouse gases in the earth’s
atmosphere are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.
Some halocarbons are also strong greenhouse gases and are linked to
stratospheric ozone depletion. Hydrocarbons and monoterpenes are precursors
and contributors to atmospheric photochemical processes, which lead
to the formation of particulates and secondary photo-oxidants such
as ozone, leading to photochemical smog. Reactive gases such as nitric
oxide and sulfur dioxide are also compounds found in the atmosphere
and generally lead to the formation of other oxides. These compounds
can be oxidized in the air to acidic and corrosive gases and contribute
to photochemical smog. Measurements of these compounds in the atmosphere
have been ongoing for decades to track growth rates and assist in
curbing emissions of these compounds into the atmosphere. To accurately
establish mole fraction trends and assess the role of these gas phase
compounds in atmospheric chemistry, it is essential to have good calibration
standards. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has
been developing standards of many of these compounds for over 40 years.
This paper discusses the development of these standards