Search results for "Global warming"
showing 10 items of 283 documents
A Review of “Risk, vulnerability and tourism in developing countries: the case of Nepal”
2013
Risk, Vulnerability and Tourism in Developing Countries aims at synthesizing a wide range of concerns with respect to global warming, sustainability, poverty and the existing material conditions th...
Global warming and tourism: chronicles of apocalypse?
2012
PurposeGlobal warming is a huge challenge faced by the mankind in the twenty‐first century and beyond. The paradox of ecology lies in the pervasive attitude of lay people who overtly condemn pollution but do not alter their individual practices. Unfortunately, the scientific community has still not reached unanimous conclusions about the causes or impacts of global warming. To close this gap, the present paper aims to stimulate discussion in two main senses: the relationship between industry and global warming; and the role of tourism in the coming decades.Design/methodology/approachBased on reading and criticism of many works, this paper provides a conceptual framework for readers to under…
Unwanted effects of European Union environmental policy to promote a post-carbon industry. The case of energy in the European ceramic tile sector
2016
Global warming combined with low carbon transition plans is threatening the future of high energy consumption industry sectors in the European Union (EU). The need to respond to environmental challenges is demonstrated by support for international level energy policies and legal requirements, such as the Kyoto Protocol which the EU supports, and increased EU-level environmental legislation and energy policies. The effect of these initiatives is gradually transforming industrial activities in the EU. However, since not all countries have adopted these policies, evaluation of their net effect needs to take account also of side-effects such as delocalization of industry activity and the legal …
Byproduct production of minor metals: Threat or opportunity for the development of clean technologies? The PV sector as an illustration
2013
Abstract Today, the fight against global warming and the coming hydrocarbon exhaustion involve a drastic increase of clean energies. These technologies resort to many minor metals which are byproduct of major metals. We will take the definition of Hageluken and Mesker (2010, Complex Life Cycles of Precious and Special Metals. In: Edition Thomas E. Graedel, Ester van der Voet (Eds.), Strungmann Forum Report, Linkages of Sustainability, MIT Press) to show precisely what minor metals are: “[they are] metals that have relatively low production or usage, which occur in low ore concentrations, are regarded as rare, or are not traded at major public exchanges”. We will analyze the byproduct status…
Assessing environmental performance trends in the transport industry: Eco-innovation or catching-up?
2015
Abstract This paper analyses the change in environmental performance that took place in the transport industry of 38 countries between the years 1995 and 2009. Data Envelopment Analysis techniques and directional distance functions are employed to compute Luenberger productivity indicators for the change in environmental performance and its determinants, namely, environmental technical change resulting from eco-innovation and catching-up with best available environmental technologies. Eight air pollutants account for the environmental contaminants from transport activities, and these are aggregated into three main categories of environmental pressures, namely, global warming, tropospheric o…
Effect of climate change on asphalt binder selection for road construction in Italy
2015
This work explores the influence of climate changes on the proper selection of asphalt binder for pavement construction purposes, according to the Performance Grade (PG) defined in the SUPERPAVE specifications. Based on temperature data at national level, it is possible to obtain thematic maps for the whole Italian territory, which is extremely useful for technicians and pavement engineers for selection of asphalt binder for road construction purposes. Furthermore, the statistical significant temperature trends’ knowledge enables deriving thematic maps which allows to include the effects of climate change in the asphalt binder design. It is argued that, due to climate change, the binders to…
GREENHOUSE EFFECT REDUCTION THROUGH MINE METHANE VALORIZATION: OVERVIEW AND FEASIBILITY STUDY
2017
Although the main reason for the extraction of methane from coal beds continues to address ensuring the safety of workers, an important driver is the need to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. In order to identify potential technical problems specific for available technologies implementation, we performed a comparative critical analysis, based on which the technically feasible systems resulted, their further selection being based on detailed analysis in financial and investment terms. The research goal was to establish options for using methane gas discharged through central degassing and main ventilation stations currently operational mines in the Jiu Valley collieries; through its lev…
Is there sustainable entrepreneurship in the wine industry? Exploring Sicilian wineries participating in the SOStain program
2016
Abstract Global climate change and the accelerating depletion of natural resources have contributed to increase discussions about the role of private enterprises in reversing negative environmental trends. Rather than focusing on profit maximization, policy makers and consumers pressure groups expect firms to meet a triple-bottom line of economic, environmental and social value creation. Hence sustainable entrepreneurship has received recently increasing interest as a phenomenon and a research topic. More recently, the concept of sustainability has been taken seriously in the Italian wine industry. The organizational challenge for entrepreneurship is to better integrate social and environme…
Changes in fish communities due to benthic habitat shifts under ocean acidification conditions
2020
Ocean acidification will likely change the structure and function of coastal marine ecosystems over coming decades. Volcanic carbon dioxide seeps generate dissolved CO2 and pH gradients that provide realistic insights into the direction and magnitude of these changes. Here, we used fish and benthic community surveys to assess the spatio-temporal dynamics of fish community properties off CO2 seeps in Japan. Adding to previous evidence from ocean acidification ecosystem studies conducted elsewhere, our findings documented shifts from calcified to non-calcified habitats with reduced benthic complexity. In addition, we found that such habitat transition led to decreased diversity of associated …
Energy-environmental assessment of the UIA-OpenAgri case study as urban regeneration project through agriculture
2020
Abstract Sustainable agriculture is strongly promoted by Agenda 2030 and peri-urban agriculture is considered strategic for agri-food sustainability. Although, innovative farming practices are being implemented, the analysis of their impacts often does not reach the required depth. Within the EU project ‘UIA-OpenAgri - New Skills for new Jobs in Peri-urban Agriculture’, a regeneration process of a peri-urban area in Milan (Italy) was started, through the development of an innovative food hub. 28 innovative foodchains are assessed by a Life Cycle Assessment approach based on primary data collected from the involved start-ups. Non-Renewable Cumulative Energy Demand and the Global Warming Pote…