Ecosystem services in the Arctic: a thematic review

The study presents the first systematic review of the existing literature on Arctic ES. Applying the Search, Appraisal, Synthesis and Analysis (SALSA) and snowballing methods and three selection criteria, 33 publications were sourced, including peer-reviewed articles, policy papers and scientific reports, and their content synthesised using the thematic analysis method. Five key themes were identified: (1) general discussion of Arctic ES, (2) Arctic social-ecological systems, (3) ES valuation, (4) ES synergies and/or trade-offs, and (5) integrating the ES perspective into management. The meta-synthesis of the literature reveals that the ES concept is increasingly being applied in the Arctic context in all five themes, but there remain large knowledge gaps concerning mapping, assessment, economic valuation, analysis of synergies, trade-offs, and underlying mechanisms, and the social effects of ES changes. Even though ES are discussed in most publications as being relevant for policy, there are few practical examples of its direct application to management. The study concludes that more primary studies of Arctic ES are needed on all of the main themes as well as governance initiatives to move Arctic ES research from theory to practice

Correction: Dillman et al. Review and Meta-Analysis of EVs: Embodied Emissions and Environmental Breakeven. Sustainability 2020, 12, 9390

Publisher Copyright: © 2021, MDPI AG. All rights reserved.The authors would like to make the following corrections about the published paper [1]. The changes are as follows: (1) Replacing affiliation 3: Department of Built Environment, Aalto University, 00076 Aalto, Iceland with: Department of Built Environment, Aalto University, 00076 Aalto, Finland (2) Replacing the sentence in “Section 4.3. The Distances of Intersection Points (DIPs)” on page 16: Additionally, the UK, Cyprus, and Greece saw breakeven points beyond the vehicles’ assumed lifetime. The darker red the country, the greater the number of kilometers required to be driven to meet the DIP point. In the petrol case (Figure 7b), no countries saw a DIP greater than the vehicles’ assumed lifetime. The minimum estimated DIPs were approximately 34,100 and 18,000 km for the diesel and petrol cases, respectively, which were both found in Iceland. France and the other Nordic countries follow not far behind Iceland. with: Additionally, only Cyprus saw breakeven points beyond the vehicles’ assumed lifetime. The darker red the country, the greater the number of kilometers required to be driven to meet the DIP point. In the petrol case (Figure 7b), no countries saw a DIP greater than the vehicles’ assumed lifetime. The minimum estimated DIPs were approximately 31,100 and 17,000 km for the diesel and petrol cases, respectively, which were both found in Iceland. France and the other Nordic countries follow not far behind Iceland. (3) Replacing the sentence in “Section 4.4. Emissions Disparity (ED)” on page 16: Figure 8a shows that in comparison with diesel vehicles, EVs are estimated to have more GHG emissions over their life cycle in seven countries. All countries that are not blue have a negative ED (Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, and the UK). with: Figure 8a shows that in comparison with diesel vehicles, EVs are estimated to have more GHG emissions over their life cycle in seven countries. All countries that are not blue have a negative ED (Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta). (3) Replacing the sentence in “Section 4.5. Maximum Production Emissions (MPEs)” on page 16: Within the diesel case, it can be seen that the non-blue blue colored countries (Poland, Malta, and Latvia) require negative MPE’s to be environmentally viable, obviously an unrealistic case. with: Within the diesel case, it can be seen that the only non-blue colored country is Latvia, where a negative MPE would be required to be environmentally viable, which is obviously an unrealistic case. (4) As a continuation of this issue, the authors need to replace the original Figure 7: (Figure presented) Figure 7. The distances of intersection points (DIPs; measured in thousands of kilometers) between an EV and (a) a diesel vehicle for comparison; (b) a petrol vehicle for comparison (in Figure 7a, the diesel DIP case, Malta does not intersect, and is thus highlighted in orange, but cannot be seen due to its relative size on the map). with: (Figure presented)

Ecosystem services and human-wellbeing. Valuing ecosystem services

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Tölvur í eðlisvísindum : verklegar æfingar með tölvutengdum mælitækjum fyrir nemendur á unglingastigi

Eftirfarandi verkefni er unnið sem lokaverkefni til B.ED.- prófs við kennaradeild Háskólans á Akureyri, vormisserið 2005. Tilgangurinn er að gera námsefni um eðlisvísindi fyrir efstu bekki grunnskóla. Er hér fyrst og fremst um gerð verklegra æfinga með tölvutengdum mæli- tækjum að ræða sem henta vel sem ítarefni með kennslubókum á unglingastigi. Eitt helsta markmið menntunar er að búa nemendur undir lífið í samfélaginu. Í margbreyti- leika nútímans reynir á hæfileikann til að bregðast við nýjum aðstæðum, takast á við og tileinka sér nýjungar og framfarir á öllum sviðum. Nám í eðlisvísindum stuðlar að því að nemendur geri sér grein fyrir því hversu mikilvæg þróun í vísindum er, bæði í nútíð og framtíð. Almenna notkun tölvunnar má finna allstaðar í nútíma samfélagi og í raun má segja að hún sé allstaðar. Skólinn á að endurspegla samfélagið og því ætti tölvan að vera sjálfsagður hlutur í skólastarfi. Flestir eru sammála um notagildi tölvunnar og að hægt sé að nýta hana sem hjálpartæki í námi. Verklegu æfingarnar tengjast allar forritinu „Data Studio“ sem er hugbúnaður til notkunar við mælingar, söfnun og úrvinnslu gagna. Það er öflug viðbót við ríkjandi kennsluaðferðir. Í verkefninu eru kennara- og nemendaleiðbeiningar fyrir verklegu æfingarnar, ásamt ítarupp- lýsingum um þau hugtök sem koma fyrir í verklegu æfingunum. Það er von mín að þessar verklegu æfingar komi að gagni við kennslu í eðlisvísindum

An appraisal of interlinkages between macro-economic indicators of economic well-being and the sustainable development goals

Recognising the well-known limitations of economic growth as a litmus test of progress and the call by Target 19 of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 to “develop measurements on progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product”, this paper advances understanding of the linkages between alternative measures of economic well-being, the well-being economy and the SDGs. A conceptual model is presented, linking four capital assets to well-being goals and domains, which are connected to related SDGs. An assessment is conducted on the extent to which Gross Domestic Product and five alternative indicators of economic well-being (Environmentally Adjusted Net Domestic Product, Measure of Economic Welfare, Genuine Savings, Genuine Progress Indicator and Inclusive Wealth Index) align with (a) the dimensions of economic well-being, and (b) various environmental, economic, social and institutional targets set by the SDGs. The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) is found to be the most comprehensive in coverage, accounting for market-based welfare, services from essential capital, and various environmental and social costs, and linking directly to targets in fourteen of the seventeen SDGs. The paper discusses how greater use of alternative measures of economic well-being by policymakers can encourage transitions to economies which prioritise well-being and desirability objectives.The main author, David Cook, is in receipt of a Post-Doctoral Fellowship Grant from the University of Iceland

Reynsla kennara af lesfimikönnunum á unglingastigi

Ágrip Umfjöllunarefni þessarar ritgerðar er reynsla kennara af lesfimikönnunum á unglingastigi. Undanfarin ár hefur umræða um lesfimikannanir beinst að þeim þáttum sem þær leggja áherslu á, leshraða og lestrarnákvæmni. Með tilkomu nýs matsramma fyrir lesfimi gefst kostur á að meta fleiri þætti er heyra undir lesfimi en matsramminn hefur ekki verið að fullu innleiddur í íslenskum skólum. Lítil umræða hefur verið um gildi lesfimikannana á unglingastigi og er markmið þessarar rannsóknar að varpa ljósi á gildi áðurnefndra kannana, hvort kennarar á unglingastigi telji að lesfimikannanir séu góður mælikvarði á lestrarfærni nemenda og hvort kennarar á unglingastigi leggi áherslu á að efla lestrarfærni unglinga við kennslu. Helstu niðurstöður sýna að lesfimikannanir meta lestrarhraða nemenda og getur hann gefið vísbendingu um lestrarfærni þeirra. Niðurstöður lesfimikanna sýna þó sjaldan nýja nemendur með lestrarörðugleika á unglingastigi en svör viðmælenda gefa til kynna að lestrarkennsla sé markvissust fyrir þá nemendur sem standa sig illa í lesfimikönnunum. Viðmælendur benda einnig á að fjölbreyttari matstæki vanti til að varpa ljósi á lestrarfærni nemenda þar sem lesfimikannanir mæli ekki lesskilning og orðaforða nemenda, þótt þær geti gefið vísbendingar um slíka þætti. Lykilorð: lesfimi, lesfimikannanir, lestrarfærni, unglingastig, grunnskólar, lestrarkennsla.Abstract The topic of this essay is the experience of teachers in measuring reading fluency in high schools. In recent years, discussion about how reading fluency is measured has primarily focused on pacing and accuracy. With the introduction of a new type of assessment, other aspects of reading fluency can be measured as well. However, this type of assessment has not been fully implemented in all high schools. This study aims to shed light on the value of high school reading fluency tests and whether teachers consider them to adequately measure students’ reading skills. The main findings of this study are that reading fluency tests assess student’s reading speed and can indicate their reading skills. However, in most cases, reading fluency tests do not reveal new students with reading difficulties on the high school level. The answers of interviewees indicate that reading instructions are the most useful for those students that do poorly on reading fluency tests. Furthermore, interviewees also point out that a greater variety of assessment tools are needed to shed light on students 'reading skills as reading fluency tests do not measure students' reading comprehension and vocabulary, although they can give an indication of those skills. Key word: fluency, reading skills, reading comprehension, high school

The cost effectiveness of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in Iceland

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An estimate of the Genuine Progress Indicator for Iceland, 2000–2019

Target 19 of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 17 calls for the use of alternative measures of economic welfare in addition to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) is an example of such a measure, including various non-market benefits and environmental and social costs unaccounted for in GDP. This study presents the results from the first estimate of the GPI for Iceland over the period 2000–2019. Iceland represents an interesting case study given its remoteness, environmental vulnerability, natural resource dependency, and fluctuating economic performance in recent years, which has featured a banking collapse and tourism-fuelled resurgence. The study finds that Iceland's GPI was equal to between 2.41 and 3.05 times the value of national GDP. Statistics for both GDP and the GPI peaked in 2019 at 2,970,076 (USD M 24,237) and 7,163,300 million ISK (USD M 58,443), respectively. Mean annual rates of per capita expansion for both GDP and the GPI were 2.1% and 0.6%, respectively. Despite the scale of the Icelandic GPI, the study also revealed non-negligible values for environmental and social costs which, in aggregate, were equal to between 17.8% and 25.4% of the value of consumption.This paper has received no external sources of funding. The main author, David Cook, is in receipt of a Post-Doctoral Fellowship Grant from the University of Iceland

Iceland’s environmental sustainability: Status and government involvement

Environmental sustainability aims at protecting the natural capital so that future generations are not at disadvantage when in comes to utilizing natural resources. The purpose of this study was to get the view of experts on how environmental sustainable Iceland is and what are the strengths, weaknesses and improvement opportunities. Data were collected through focus-group interviews with experts in the fields of biodiversity, energy, water, land-use planning, waste, ocean and beaches, and atmosphere. Additionally, masters students participated in a focus-group interview. The results show that although the experts were asked to discuss various environmental sustainability themes, similar discussion on administrative issues took place in all of the focus-groups. The topics discussed included government strategy, measurement and control, law and regulations, economic instruments, government administration, politics, planning, stakeholders, research and collaboration. The discussion in the focus-groups centred more on administrative weaknesses and need for improvements, rather than governance strengths related to environmental sustainability issues. It can therefore be assumed that there is work to be done when it comes to administrative aspects of environmental sustainability in Iceland

A Conceptual Exploration of How the Pursuit of Sustainable Energy Development Is Implicit in the Genuine Progress Indicator

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a bridging point between the old, neoclassical, growth-based model of the economy and newer, emerging paradigms, such as the well-being economy. The importance of growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is recognized within the SDGs, however, in addition, Target 19 of Goal 17 advocates the adoption of alternative measures of economic well-being. The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) has been found to be the indicator of alternative economic well-being most aligned with the SDGs. On the basis that increased, high-quality energy use leads to expanded macro-economic activity, as measured by GDP, this study conducts a conceptual exploration of the extent to which the pursuit of sustainable energy development (SED) can enhance GPI outcomes. Based on a recent Icelandic GPI study, a total of 46 SED themes were found to be linkable to 16 of its 39 sub-indicators, including 8 cost deductions and 7 benefit additions. The frequency of these was as follows: sustainable energy production (10), sustainable energy consumption (10), energy security (8), nature conservation (8), social benefits (7) and economically efficient energy system (3). The main implication of the study outcomes is that the pursuit of SED is likely to have considerable benefits in terms of fulfilling energy and climate policy, but also co-benefits with regard to the promulgation of economic and societal well-being, as reflected in the GPI. These outcomes, although applicable to Iceland, have ramifications for all nations who are simultaneously striving for greater economic prosperity, whilst tackling climate change and striving to deliver equitable, environmentally sound and resilient energy systems