Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian realism/ Christian idealism

The foregoing quip captures a realization that came to the young Reinhold Niebuhr in the 192os and that turned the liberal Christian pastor away from pacifism and toward a more realist ethic of politics. From then until his death in 1971, Niebuhr was to remain always a liberal Christian of realist bent. He was a liberal Christian in his concentration on the law of love as the only absolute and in his rejection of Christian fundamentalism, biblical literalism, and the consequent clash with science. He was a political realist, and rose to national prominence as such in the 1930S and 1940s, in his dismissal of pragmatic pacifism and his advocacy of American responsibility to use force in opposing the Nazi and Soviet threats to the world. He was famous particularly for his sharp attacks on those who failed to see the limits on morality in politics. Yet this realism was but one strand of Niebuhr's dualist approach to politics, the other being his Christian idealism

An Exploration of How Childminders Engage in Reflection With Others and Become Reflective Practitioners

There is recent research (Cable and Goodliff, 2010; Paige-Smith and Craft, 2008a; Cooper, 2010) within the same general contexts as this thesis, but limited research bringing these contexts together and none focusing specifically on childminders and their particular issues of both working in isolation for much of their day-to-day practice and low status (real or perceived); and then the impact of these factors on whom they reflect with, and how they reflect on, their practice. This research adopts a qualitative case study approach to explore the reflective practices of nineteen childminders studying a distance-learning Foundation Degree in Early Years. Data collection methods include questionnaires, semistructured telephone interviews and e-mail correspondence. The research questions aim to explore: childminders’ understanding of reflective practice and how this changes during their studies, the range of factors involved in engaging in effective reflection on practice and the decisions childminders make in deciding whom to reflect with, and the impact of professional identity on reflective practice. The main findings from this research reveal a shift in reflective practices as the childminders gain in knowledge and skills as a result of their studies. It is unsurprising that the childminders reflect with others, given that the FDEY promotes the importance of reflection with others. However, the data shows the childminders not only gain an understanding of the value and benefits of reflecting on practice but this awareness prompts significant changes in whom the childminders seek to reflect with, bringing with it a need to align themselves with a different community of practice as their professional identity develops. For those facilitating reflective opportunities, and those engaging in reflection, this research draws attention to the importance, of understanding the factors impacting on reflective practices, and the potentially transforming nature of reflective practice on professional identity

Persistence of low wind speed conditions and implications for wind power variability

As the penetration of wind generation increases on power systems throughout the world, the effects of wind variability on power systems are of increasing concern. This study focuses on sustained occurrences of low wind speeds over durations ranging from 1 h to 20 days. Such events have major implications for the variability of energy yields from wind farms. This, in turn, influences the accuracy of wind resource assessment. The frequency analysis techniques commonly used to study wind variability cannot represent the autocorrelation properties of wind speeds and thus provide no information on the probabilities of occurrence of such sustained, low wind events. We present two complementary methods for assessing wind variability, runs analysis and intensity–duration–frequency analysis, both with emphasis on characterising the occurrence of continuous, extended periods (up to several days) of low wind speeds. Multi-annual time series of hourly wind speeds from meteorological stations in Ireland are analysed with both techniques. Sustained 20-day periods corresponding to extremely low levels of wind generation are found to have return periods of around 10 years in coastal areas. Persistent, widespread low wind speed conditions across the entire country are found to occur only rarely

A visual overview of world oil markets

Total world demand for oil is expected to increase about 27 percent in the period 1985-2000. Demand in the centrally planned economies should remain constant. Oil consumption in the industrial countries is expected to grow only 19 percent in the same period. But the demand in the developing countries should grow about 50 percent. No other group of countries will experience so great an increase in demand for oil. As a result of"industrialization"shifts from the industrial countries to the developing nations, oil consumption in the industrial sectors of less developed countries has remained predominant over their transportation sectors. This has important ramifications for fuel substitution, efficiency improvements, and other policies.Environmental Economics&Policies,Energy Demand,Oil Refining&Gas Industry,Consumption,Energy and Environment

Skogens miljökvalitetsmål

This study investigates the current status of the Scanian regional environmental objectives in relation to Swedish forestry. The aim of the study was to decide on high impact measures that will contribute to the fulfilment of five out of these 16 objectives; Reduced Climate Impact, Natural Acidification Only, Zero Eutrophication, Sustainable Forests and A Rich Diversity of Plants and Animals. Although Sweden has a well-developed forestry and extensive environmental efforts have been implemented, none of the chosen environmental objectives will be fulfilled by 2020 without additional actions. Some of the required actions were presented in an interview with the Swedish Forest Agency, others were retrieved in literature. By reviewing a real-life case, Högestad & Christinehof förvaltnings AB, the relevance of the proposed measures were estimated and reasonable actions implementable in different sized stakeholders were presented. Results show that two of the most effective and concrete actions to introduce are replanting of deciduous tree species and additional creation of protected forest areas. Other more general measures are to increase respect for plants and wildlife when harvesting, improve dialogue between stakeholders within the forestry industry and to further implement landscape perspective of forest owners. The study also concludes that due to constant development of the environmental issues in Sweden, these measures may soon be improved or replaced by other, more efficient methods.Detta arbetet undersöker hur skogsbruk i Skåne kan bidra till uppfyllanden utav fem av de regionala miljökvalitetsmålen för länet. Detta gjordes genom att se över skogsbruket i helhet samt dess utveckling i Sverige och sedan, genom att samarbeta med ett riktigt skogsbruksföretag, undersöka möjligheter och hinder det finns för ett förbättrat miljöarbete inom denna näring. De valda miljökvalitetsmålen baserades på skogsbrukets påverkan och förbättringspotential i förhållande till dessa och blev således; Begränsad klimatpåverkan, Bara naturlig försurning, Ingen övergödning, Levande skogar samt Ett rikt växt- och djurliv. Resultaten i denna studie visar att Sverige är ett framgångsrikt land när det kommer till hållbar utveckling av skogsbruk men att man fortfarande har en långt att gå för att uppnå de uppsatta målen. Detta beror till stor del på skogsbrukets otroliga omfattning i Sverige, samt det långa tidsintervallet mellan plantering och skörd som gäller för skogsbruket. Trots att de flesta kraftfulla insatserna redan implementeras i Sverige, så visar resultaten av denna studie att de behöver utvecklas ytterligare samt implementeras i större utsträckning. Något som också framgår i denna studie är att kommunikation är en otroligt viktig aspekt som måste förbättras inom skogsbruket, både genom ökad dialog mellan skogsbrukare men också förbättrat informationsutbyte mellan olika myndigheter och aktörer inom skogsbruket

Offshore Conversion of Wind Power to Gaseous Fuels: Feasibility Study in a Depleted Gas Field

A proof-of-concept study is presented of a Power-to-Gas system that is located fully offshore. This paper analyses how such a system would perform if based at the depleted Kinsale Gas Field in the Celtic Sea Basin off the south coast of Ireland. An offshore wind farm is proposed as the power source for the system. Several conversion technologies are examined in detail in terms of resource efficiency, technological maturity, and platform area footprint, the aim being to ascertain their overall applicability to an offshore Power-to-Gas system. The technologies include proton exchange membrane electrolysers for electrolysis of water to release H2. Bipolar membrane electro-dialysis and electronic cation exchange module processes are also considered for the extraction of CO2 from seawater. These technologies provide the feedstock for the Sabatier process for the production of CH4 from H2 and CO2. Simulations of the end-to-end systems were carried out using Simulink, and it was found that the conversion of offshore wind power to hydrogen or methane is a technically feasible option. Hydrogen production is much closer to market viability than methane production, but production costs are too high and conversion efficiencies too low in both cases with present-day technology to be competitive with current wholesale natural gas prices