Anton J.M. Schoot Uiterkamp

Environmental Literacy in Science and Society

Once upon a time, a US President wrote in his Message to the Congress: ‘‘It is also vital that our entire society develop a new understanding and a new awareness of man’s relation to his environment – what might be called ‘‘environmental literacy’’ (EL). This will require the development and teaching of environmental concepts at every point in the educational process’’ (Nixon 1970). The President concerned was the Republican incumbent Richard M. Nixon and that the year was 1970. Nixon’s clarion call to develop EL may have long since petered out politically but still many people became actively involved in environmental education during the last few decades. It resulted in a large volume of literature on environmental education at least compared to that on EL. This suggests perhaps that educational processes and contexts underlying and leading to an intended goal such as EL were considered by many to be more interesting than the outcome itself. And although an undergraduate level EL course was developed (Nair et al. 2002) and a framework to assess was developed (Hollweg et al. 2011) EL remained difficult to define and enact consistently. In his recent book ‘‘Environmental Literacy in Science and Society’’ Roland Scholz (2011) defines EL as ‘‘the ability to appropriately read and use environmental information and to anticipate rebound effects or to adapt according to information about environmental systems and their dynamics.’’ However the subtitle ‘‘From Knowledge to Decisions’’ indicates that the book aims to be much more than to provide an overall perspective on EL. It also presents a thorough discussion of the didactic and educational concepts and processes underlying EL. In fact the book is an ambitious and genuine attempt to produce nothing less than an integrative synthesis of the whole field of environmental sciences and science-based decision making. Ever since its beginning in the early sixties the field gradually emerged from a range of contributing natural and social sciences disciplines. During that 50-year period, it was shaped and codified in innumerable papers and books. Its own journals appeared and its own methodologies were defined, developed and applied. A wide variety of sourcebooks and mainly natural or social sciences oriented textbooks are now available. There is even a complementary academic textbook ‘‘Principles of Environmental Sciences’’ (Boersema and Reijnders 2009). Still one of the grand challenges of any branch of science remained. There was not yet a credible attempt at a unified synthesis of the field. That is until the publication of Scholz’ book. In Scholz’ own words ‘‘although it is a work of theory, it also includes a pragmatic perspective’’. For over 20 years, Scholz held the chair of Environmental Sciences Natural and Social Science Interface at ETH Zürich. During that period he and his coworkers constructed a consistent, rigorous and Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences 2012, 1–3, iFirst article

Upgrading of organic waste: production of the copolymer poly-3-hydroxybutyrate-co-valerate by Ralstonia eutrophus with organic waste as sole carbon source

Abstract Two types of fermented organic waste (trade and industry waste and fruit and vegetable waste) were successfully used as a sole carbon source to produce poly-3-hydroxybutyrate-co-valerate (PHBV) by Ralstonia eutrophus (formerly Alcaligenes eutrophus) via oxygen limitation. The production of PHBV could be optimized by optimizing the oxygen transfer through the fermentor. Thereby, a peak concentration of 1.1 g PHBV per liter cell suspension, 40 w% of cell dry weight, was obtained at an aeration rate of 0.24 mol O2/h·kg biomass. The yield of PHBV on the fatty acid concentration in the organic waste was 0.16 g polymer/g volatile organic matter. The process obtained, compares well with the commercial production process of PHBV based on glucose.

Biobased chemicals in a carbon-restricted world

In the quest for a more sustainable society, researchers, policy makers, and businesses are looking for options to reduce the use of fossil resources. Replacing these with renewable resources is a way to both ensure long-term material and energy security and reduce CO2 emissions. 1 Biomass based products are relevant in this context, but it is important to select the routes that are most beneficial in the context of an integrated energy and materials system. In such an integrated system biomass should be used primarily to produce “drop-in” chemicals for the petrochemicals industry like ethylene, propylene, methanol and benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX). To study the sustainability of biobased BTX a complex life cycle analysis was conducted looking at several products from woody biomass. In this paper we argue that production of biobased BTX yields good economic and environmental benefits for the following reasons:

Exploring policy strategies for mitigating HFC emissions from refrigeration and air conditioning

The growing demand for cooling throughout the world, possibly increased by global climate change, requires the implementation of policies to mitigate the related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from energy and refrigerant use in the refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) sector. This article aims to contribute to the discussion on strategies to reduce HFC emissions from RAC by looking at their different temporal effects, caused by stock-flow dynamics. From scenario modeling, we find that containment strategies are often most effective in reducing HFC emissions in the short run, whereas phase out strategies have more potential in the long run. Further findings suggest that early and quick implementation of phase out strategies could lead to important reductions in cumulative HFC emissions, because stock build up is prevented. This timing effect is less pronounced for containment strategies. Lastly, emissions from disposal, if unabated, can lead to equally large emissions annually as those from use. Preference for several short-term benefits of containment strategies might lead to sub optimal emission reduction strategies, endangering long term GHG emission reduction.

Valuation of environmental public goods and services at different spatial scales: a review

To manage environmental problems in an adequate way, it is essential to take different spatial scales into consideration. As a tool for decision making, it would be beneficial if valuation methods take spatial scales into account as well. In this article, we review the valuation literature with regard to the spatial scales of environmental public goods and services to which the contingent valuation method, hedonic pricing method, and travel cost method have been applied in the past. We classified 117 environmental case studies to the local, landscape/watershed, regional, and global scales. These case studies cover a broad range of environmental goods and services, such as green space in a city, air quality, rivers, natural areas, and a stable climate system. Additionally, we took into account the year of publication of the case studies. Our results show that the majority of the environmental case studies are related to the local and landscape/watershed scales. However, the number of case studies on the regional and global scales has been increasing in recent years. This article argues that such a change in spatial scale calls for a debate on scaling issues in the field of environmental valuation.

A perspective on programmes in higher environmental education

An invited response on the paper of David Raey.