Insect decline, an emerging global environmental risk

The Earth’s entomofauna seems in an ongoing state of collapse. Insect decline could pose a global risk to key insect-mediated ecosystem functions and services such as soil and freshwater functions (nutrient cycling, soil formation, decomposition, and water purification), biological pest control, pollination services and food web support that all are critical to ecosystem functioning, human health and human survival. At present the attention for insect decline is low in all domains, ranging from scientific research to policy-making to nature conservation. Scientists made urgent calls to prioritise insect conservation. An international treaty for global pollinator stewardship and pollinator ecosystem restoration is urgently needed to counteract the current crisis. A review of insect pollinator conservation policies found that despite scientific calls and public outcry to develop polices that addresses declines, governments have not delivered such legislation, nor have they met basic monitoring needs recommended by experts.publishedVersio

Архів П. Мартиновича, присвячений кобзарству

Продовжуючи серію публікацій до ювілею відомого дослідника побуту, цехових звичаїв та репертуару кобзарів та лірників художника Порфирія Денисовича Мартиновича, ми пропонуємо читачам матеріали його архіву, присвячені кобзарській тематиці.This edition continues publication of the archive materials dedicated to P.D. Martynovych, who was an artist and a prominent researcher, interested in every day life and repertoire of the Ukrainian epic singers — kobzars and lirnyks. His correspondence with V.P. Horlenko (year 1886) indicates, that he was involved in the problems of the preservation of the Ukrainian traditional culture, and in the kobzars’ studies. His recordings from kobzar P. Drygavka (done in 1913) give us information about kobzars’ every day life, traditions, customs in Kharkiv region

Silver as a constraint for a large-scale development of solar photovoltaics? Scenario-making to the year 2050 supported by expert engagement and global sensitivity analysis

In this study we assess whether availability of silver could constrain a large-scale deployment of solar photovoltaics (PV). While silver-paste use in photovoltaics cell metallization is becoming more efficient, solar photovoltaics power capacity installation is growing at an exponential pace. Along photovoltaics, silver is also employed in an array of industrial and non-industrial applications. The trends of these uses are examined up to the year 2050. The technical coefficients for the expansion in photovoltaics power capacity and contraction in silver paste use have been assessed through an expert-consultation process. The trend of use in the non-PV sectors has been estimated through an ARIMA (auto-regressive integrated moving average) model. The yearly and cumulative silver demand are evaluated against the technological potential for increasing silver mining and the estimates of its global natural availability, respectively. The model implemented is tested with a quasi-random Monte Carlo variance-based global sensitivity analysis. The result of our inquiry is that silver may not represent a constraint for a very-large-scale deployment of photovoltaics (up to tens TW in installed power capacity) provided the present decreasing trend in the use of silver paste in the photovoltaics sector continues at an adequate pace. Silver use in non-photovoltaic sectors plays also a tangible influence on potential constraints. In terms of natural constraints, most of the uncertainty is dependent on the actual estimates of silver natural budget

Évaluation de la qualité de la connaissance dans une perspective délibérative

Cet article propose une vision des démarches d’évaluation de l’adéquation de la connaissance scientifique dans des situations d’incertitude forte et irréductible en recourant à des processus délibératifs élargis. Dans l’optique de la Science Post-Normale, la démarche s’appuie, d’un point de vue épistémologique, sur l’articulation des approches scientifiques et de sciences sociales pour définir la qualité intrinsèque de la connaissance et sa pertinence dans des contextes sociaux, culturels et politiques différents.Cet article présente un outil de contrôle de la qualité de la connaissance et de « bonnes pratiques » scientifiques (NUSAP). La question de la pertinence de la connaissance, qu’elle soit scientifique ou vernaculaire, s’intègre dans un processus multidimensionnel délibératif, associant divers acteurs, critères, échelles, sites… et portant sur les indicateurs et sur les orientations politiques à travers la Foire Kerbabel™ aux Indicateurs et la Matrice Kerbabel™ de Délibération.Knowledge Quality Assessment is an essential activity in the science-policy and science-society interfaces regarding complex (environmental) problems where decisions will need to be made before conclusive scientific evidence is available while high decision stakes, high systems uncertainties and values in dispute characterize these problems. In the past decennia analytical diagnostic tools have been developed and used such as the NUSAP system, to assess and make explicit internal strength of knowledge claims. In such an enlarged deliberative process, analytic diagnostic tools can facilitate a reflective deliberative discourse (KerbabelTM Deliberation Support Tools). It can improve the knowledge base for decision making by promoting the exchange of information, and in particular by making available key insights from local and ‘lay’ knowledge of relevant topics

Здійснення колективного управління авторськими і суміжними правами

Стаття присвячена основним тенденціям розвитку національного законодавства про колективне управління майновими правами суб’єктів авторського права і суміжних прав. Виявлення суперечностей між національним та міжнародним законодавством, розробка пропозицій подолання цих суперечностей та внесення пропозицій щодо створення та діяльності в Україні єдиної організації, яка б опікувалась проблемами захисту авторських і суміжних прав, справедливо контролювала не тільки збір, а й розподіл відрахувань за авторськими і суміжними правами, що б і поліпшило захист прав її учас­ників.Статья посвящена основным тенденциям развития национального законодатель­ства о коллективном управлении имущественными правами субъектов авторского права и смежных прав. Выявлению противоречий между национальным и международ­ным законодательством, разработка предложений о преодолении этих противоречий и внесение предложений о создании и деятельности в Украине единой организации, которая бы опекалась проблемами защиты авторских и смежных прав, и которая бы справедливо контролировала не только сбор, но и распределение отчислений по авторским и смежным правам, в следствии чего и улучшилась бы защита прав ее участни­ков.The article is dedicated to the main national legislation trends which is regulated relations in the sphere of the collective management of copyrights and related rights of subjects’ copyrights and related rights. Detection of collision between national and international legislation, elaboration of suggestions for theirs overcoming. Also making a motion about creat­ing and working the single collective management of copyrights and related rights in Ukraine for monitoring not only collection but also distribute royalties. Thus the defence of subjects’ copyrights and related rights would be improved

Dealing with uncertainties in environmental burden of disease assessment

Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) combine the number of people affected by disease or mortality in a population and the duration and severity of their condition into one number. The environmental burden of disease is the number of DALYs that can be attributed to environmental factors. Environmental burden of disease estimates enable policy makers to evaluate, compare and prioritize dissimilar environmental health problems or interventions. These estimates often have various uncertainties and assumptions which are not always made explicit. Besides statistical uncertainty in input data and parameters – which is commonly addressed – a variety of other types of uncertainties may substantially influence the results of the assessment. We have reviewed how different types of uncertainties affect environmental burden of disease assessments, and we give suggestions as to how researchers could address these uncertainties. We propose the use of an uncertainty typology to identify and characterize uncertainties. Finally, we argue that uncertainties need to be identified, assessed, reported and interpreted in order for assessment results to adequately support decision making

Religious positions on climate change and climate policy in the United States

February 2006, a group of 86 evangelical leaders, under the auspices of the Evangelical Climate Initiative, challenged the Bush administration on global warming. Other religious groups and leaders in the USA, and other countries, have taken positions as well. As the US evangelical community seems to have a considerable influence on the views and policy of (Republican) national leaders, these developments are relevant for assessing US and international climate policy. Using argumentative discourse analysis, this paper analyzes the religious positions on climate change and climate policy in the United States, as evident in their communication in the media, opinion documents, and websites. Religious positions show a wide range of views, images, and discourses that deal with fundamental moral and ethical questions concerning climate change, stewardship and social justice. Our main conclusion is that both proponents and opponents of strict climate policy strongly value these concepts, but that they interpret them in different ways. A robust policy strategy (regarding support in the religious community) should pay careful attention to the effects of both climate change and climate policy on the poor in both developing nations and the USA itself.Keywords: environmental justice, equity, ethics, religion and environment, climate policy, United State

Unpacking the modeling process for energy policy making

This article explores how the modeling of energy systems may lead to an undue closure of alternatives by generating an excess of certainty around some of the possible policy options. We retrospectively exemplify the problem with the case of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) global modeling in the 1980s. We discuss different methodologies for quality assessment that may help mitigate this issue, which include Numeral Unit Spread Assessment Pedigree (NUSAP), diagnostic diagrams, and sensitivity auditing (SAUD). We illustrate the potential of these reflexive modeling practices in energy policy‐making with three additional cases: (i) the case of the energy system modeling environment (ESME) for the creation of UK energy policy; (ii) the negative emission technologies (NETs) uptake in integrated assessment models (IAMs); and (iii) the ecological footprint indicator. We encourage modelers to adopt these approaches to achieve more robust, defensible, and inclusive modeling activities in the field of energy research