Search results for "natural resource"

Introduction

2016

This collection of essays is a tribute to Neri Salvadori, the man and scholar, teacher and friend, whom the scientific community owes important works in the tradition of Piero Sraffa’s revival of the classical economists’ approach to the problems of value, income distribution, capital accumulation, technical progress, scarce natural resources, economic development and growth. The essays in this book have all been freshly written and contain original work with novel ideas in the areas mentioned. In this introduction we first summarize briefly Neri Salvadori’s academic career, his work and his intellectual and organisational activities and then provide a short overview of the essays collected…

The utmost ends of the nuclear fuel cycle: Finnish perceptions of the risks of uranium mining and nuclear waste management

2013

There has been substantial social scientific research to determine how people perceive the risks of nuclear power, wastes, and waste management, but not much attention has been given to risk perceptions of other types of nuclear activities. Knowledge about attitudes towards uranium mining and exploitation is increasing, and more attention should be paid to how people perceive the risks of both ends of the nuclear fuel cycle. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze the risk perceptions towards nuclear waste and uranium mining and how these perceptions relate to each other. The analysis is based on Finnish survey data (N = 1180) gathered in 2007. Renewed international interest in nucle…

Opportunity Costs of Ensuring Sustainability in Urban Water Services

2011

This paper assesses technical performance in the water industry in the Southern European region of Andalusia, while accounting for sustainability in the management of water. This allows the opportunity cost of producing sustainability to be evaluated. Given the low cost of raw water in Spain in relation to the estimated opportunity cost of saving this natural resource, wasting water becomes a profitable strategy for utility managers from a private perspective. However, this managerial strategy has a huge social cost in an area of Europe where the sustainable management of water is a pressing need. The conclusion is that environmental policy aimed at discouraging this wasteful behaviour is u…

Forest management optimization across spatial scales to reconcile economic and conservation objectives

2019

Conflicts between biodiversity conservation and resource production can be mitigated by multi-objective management planning. Optimizing management for multiple objectives over larger land areas likely entails trading off the practicability of the process against the goodness of the solution. It is therefore worthwhile to resolve how large areas are required as management planning regions to reconcile conflicting objectives as effectively as possible. We aimed to reveal how the extent of forestry planning regions impacts the potential to mitigate a forestry-conservation conflict in Finland, represented as a trade-off between harvest income and deadwood availability. We used forecasted data f…

Technical and economical feasibility of biomass use for power generation in Sicily

2012

Biomass can provide a reliable support for production ofbiofuels while contributing to sustainable management of natural resources. Many countries, including Italy, have introduced important incentive schemes to support the use of biomass for electricity, heat and transportation. This has raised considerable interest towards the use of biomass for energy generation purposes. Nonetheless, the design and installation ofbiomass-fuelled power plants present several critical issues, such as choice and availability of biomass, choice of technology, power plant localization and logistics. The case study tackled in this paper evaluates the economies originated by a 1MW el Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC…

Biodeterioration of cardboard-based liquid containers collected for fibre reuse.

1999

Liquid packaging board (LPB) collected in Germany is processed in Finland as recycled fibre and as plastic reject for incineration. The chemical, biological and physical changes occurring in recycled LPB bales were monitored during storage of six and 18 months. The moisture content in the core of the bales ranged from 7% to 53%, and pH values varied from 6.0 to 8.5. The average amount of mesophilic bacteria per container was 1.5 x 10(7) - 5 x 10(8), which means that recycled LPB pulp cannot be recommended for sanitary use. The concentration of CO2 inside the bale is an indicator of the activity of aerobic microorganisms and might be suitable for identifying deteriorated bales and removing t…

Biopiracy of medicinal plants: Finding fair solutions for the use of natural resources.

2019

The genetics of phenotypic plasticity in livestock in the era of climate change: a review

2020

Climate change has the potential to adversely affect the health of livestock, with consequences to animal welfare, greenhouse gas emissions, productivity, human health and livelihoods. Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of a genotype to produce different phenotypes, depending on environmental, biotic or abiotic conditions; it is a factor influencing and modifying the genes of animal and plant organisms, to adaptation to climate change. Among the various climate variables, heat stress has been reported to be the most detrimental factor to the economy of the livestock industry. There are a number of candidate genes that are associated with adaptation of ruminants, monogastric and poultry to…

Research of organic agricultural production support in Poland

2017

The features of supporting organic production in Poland are analyzed in the article. Poland is characterized by the largest employment of the population and the number of farms in the organic sector among the countries of Europe. Despite the favorable natural and climatic conditions, the scientific and practical base, significant areas occupied by organic production, the powerful export potential of the country, the proportion of organic operators in the structure of agricultural producers is very low. The main obstacles to the transition to organic principles are the poor development of environmental infrastructure and support from various services of the entire agricultural system. Theref…

Renewable Energy Assessment in Italy and Brazil: An Economic and Political Comparison

2017

The aim of this study is a comparison among Italian and Brazilian electrical energy system with a particular focus on renewable energy sources. The energy sector has a key role in the sustainable development of a country, so it influences economic and political choices. The work would underline differences, common point among two country, specially, in this particular socio-economic period and it should emphasize that green economy could be a possible answer to financial crisis. The main purpose of this study is a presentation of Italian and Brazilian energy system with a particular focus on renewable sources. The energy sector has a key role in the sustainable development of these countrie…