Environmental malgovernance in Brazil: what to do in the face of purposeful destruction?

Deforestation has grown significantly during Jair Bolsonaro’s term by cutting funding, monitoring capacity, and enforcement rights from Brazil’s environmental agencies. But is his presidency the only one to be held accountable? Consumers, traders, and financiers have also profited from this, as Mairon G. Bastos Lima (Stockholm Environment Institute) and Karen da Costa (University of Gothenburg) analysed

Sanitation Now: What is Good Practice and What is Poor Practice?

To meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goals sanitation target or the 2025 universal sanitation coverage target it is essential that it is properly understood where the available sanitation options are applicable. In high-density low-income urban areas conventional sewerage and ecological sanitation systems are inapplicable solely on grounds of cost. In these areas the options are simplified sewerage, low-cost combined sewerage and community-managed sanitation blocks. In medium-density urban areas on-site systems are also applicable (alternating twin-pit VIP latrines and pour-flush toilets, urine-diverting alternating twin-vault ventilated improved vault latrines, biogas toilets and ecological sanitation systems, all with greywater disposal or use). In medium- to low-density rural areas the options are the same as those in medium-density urban areas, with single-pit VIP latrines and pour-flush toilets, rather than alternating twin-pit systems. The level of water supply service (public or community-managed standpipes, yard taps, multiple-tap in-house supplies) also influences the choice of sanitation option

Education and Capabilities for a Global ‘Great Transition’

__Abstract__ What are the implications for education of the emergent global challenges of sustainability? Various studies suggest that major changes are required in predominant human values during the next two generations, to ensure politically and environmentally sustainable societies and a sustainable global order. Three required moves, according to The Earth Charter and the Great Transition study by the Stockholm Environment Institute (Earth Charter Commission; Raskin et al. 2002), are the following: from pursuit of human fulfilment predominantly through consumerism, to a focus on quality of life above quantity of commercial activity; from the predominance of possessive individualism, towards more human solidarity; and from a stance of human domination and exploitation of nature, towards an ecological sensitivity. This essay considers such a neo-Stoic project—covering, broadly speaking, the cultivation of humanity’s flourishing as individuals, as collectivity, and in and towards our natural environment, each of them as desirable in themselves and in order to preserve humankind

Sanitation options in rural and urban areas: best practices

Suitable low-cost sanitation systems for use in poor rural and urban areas are described. For dispersed rural areas Arborloos generally represent the ‘best’ choice. As the density increases other options may be used, including alternating twin-pit or twin-vault systems providing they can be desludged by the users. In poor urban areas the choice is normally between simplified sewerage, low-cost combined sewerage and community-managed sanitation blocks

Inequality, trust, and sustainability

Instrumental arguments linking inequality to sustainability often suppose a negative relationship between inequality and social cohesion, and empirical studies of inequality and social trust support the assumption. If true, then redistribution should increase levels of social cohesion and thereby ease the implementation of policies that require collective action to achieve shared benefits. However, an examination of the data suggests that at least part of the relationship may be explained by income level, rather than income distribution, suggesting that growth, rather than redistribution, may achieve the same goal. This paper tests for the possibility and suggests that income is indeed important in explaining differences in levels of social trust. However, the effect of income level is insufficient to explain all of the dependence on income inequality; both income level and income distribution are correlated with social trust. The analysis is done at the income decile level using individual response data from the World Values Survey. While the analysis is limited by the availability and reliability of the underlying data, the results suggest that neither redistribution nor growth alone is sufficient to raise a low-trust country to a position of medium or high trust. Rather, using the parameters estimated in this paper, a combination of growth with narrowing income distributions could, over a period of perhaps two decades, produce a significant change in levels of social trust.income inequality; social trust; social cohesion; composition effect; World Values Survey

Celebrating Womanhood: How better menstrual hygiene management is the path to better health, dignity and business

On International Women's Day in 2013, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Councilheld Celebrating Womanhood: Menstrual Hygiene Management, a unique event that brought together a wide and deep range of participants to focus on issues related to menstruation. The event provided a chance to forge new connections and to make the "unspeakable" topic speakable. As the report describes, menstruation is still a taboo issue and has been neglected within WASH and in the field of human rights, but research and promising approaches and partnerships are already underway

The Need for More Academics in Carbon Market Formation

In the wake of climate change negotiations in Cancún, and as New Mexico, California, Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia design their own greenhouse gas markets, I am struck by the dearth of North American academics involved in the creation of climate change policy. Those tracking and attempting to influence the design of these markets are not few; they encompass representatives from energy to agricultural industries, industry trade associations like the International Emissions Trading Association, non-governmental organizations such as the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, World Resources Institute, and Stockholm Environment Institute. However, all of these interests have funding sources with an agenda. Academia is not completely immune to the plague of industry or interest group-sponsored research, but it is more protected as professors usually do not owe their salary to one of these entities and some external funding sources like the National Science Foundation have no anticipated outcome of studies or papers. Involving more academics can help provide a more unbiased review with equal emphasis on how policies will impact a variety of industries and the environment