What rational justification is there for conceiving of all living things as possessing inherent worth? InRespect for Nature, Paul Taylor draws on biology, moral philosophy, and environmental science ...to defend a biocentric environmental ethic in which all life has value. Without making claims for the moral rights of plants and animals, he offers a reasoned alternative to the prevailing anthropocentric view--that the natural environment and its wildlife are valued only as objects for human use or enjoyment.Respect for Natureprovides both a full account of the biological conditions for life--human or otherwise--and a comprehensive view of the complex relationship between human beings and the whole of nature.
This classic book remains a valuable resource for philosophers, biologists, and environmentalists alike--along with all those who care about the future of life on Earth. A new foreword by Dale Jamieson looks at how the original 1986 edition ofRespect for Naturehas shaped the study of environmental ethics, and shows why the work remains relevant to debates today.
Access to a wide range of plastic materials has been rationalized by the increased demand from growing populations and the development of high-throughput production systems. Plastic materials at low ...costs with reliable properties have been utilized in many everyday products. Multibillion-dollar companies are established around these plastic materials, and each polymer takes years to optimize, secure intellectual property, comply with the regulatory bodies such as the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals and the Environmental Protection Agency and develop consumer confidence. Therefore, developing a fully sustainable new plastic material with even a slightly different chemical structure is a costly and long process. Hence, the production of the common plastic materials with exactly the same chemical structures that does not require any new registration processes better reflects the reality of how to address the critical future of sustainable plastics. In this review, we have highlighted the very recent examples on the synthesis of common monomers using chemicals from sustainable feedstocks that can be used as a like-for-like substitute to prepare conventional petrochemical-free thermoplastics.
Concerns for arsenic exposure are not limited to toxic waste sites and massive poisoning events. Chronic exposure continues to be a major public health problem worldwide, affecting hundreds of ...millions of persons.
We reviewed recent information on worldwide concerns for arsenic exposures and public health to heighten awareness of the current scope of arsenic exposure and health outcomes and the importance of reducing exposure, particularly during pregnancy and early life.
We synthesized the large body of current research pertaining to arsenic exposure and health outcomes with an emphasis on recent publications.
Locations of high arsenic exposure via drinking water span from Bangladesh, Chile, and Taiwan to the United States. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maximum contaminant level (MCL) in drinking water is 10 µg/L; however, concentrations of > 3,000 µg/L have been found in wells in the United States. In addition, exposure through diet is of growing concern. Knowledge of the scope of arsenic-associated health effects has broadened; arsenic leaves essentially no bodily system untouched. Arsenic is a known carcinogen associated with skin, lung, bladder, kidney, and liver cancer. Dermatological, developmental, neurological, respiratory, cardiovascular, immunological, and endocrine effects are also evident. Most remarkably, early-life exposure may be related to increased risks for several types of cancer and other diseases during adulthood.
These data call for heightened awareness of arsenic-related pathologies in broader contexts than previously perceived. Testing foods and drinking water for arsenic, including individual private wells, should be a top priority to reduce exposure, particularly for pregnant women and children, given the potential for life-long effects of developmental exposure.
Environmental problems of pollution and degradation are a major source of concern globally. At all levels, efforts are being made to protect and preserve the environment from further deterioration. ...Measures are being taken at international, national and regional levels by governments and organisations to spread the awareness and concern for the environment and ecosystem, but these are not yet yielding the expected returns. Research has indicated that humans must be guided by values, beliefs, and individual motivating factors if attitudes are to be converted in actual behaviour. This book presents an empirical research study on the relationship between the measures of ecological concern and its demographic and psychosocial determinants. It discusses the various models of environmental concern and tracks the human-environment relationship as studied by environmental psychologists and sociologists. The book will be of great use to the students, academics, researchers and scholars in a variety of fields, including human ecology, eco-philosophy, sustainable development, environmental psychology, environmental sociology, environmental economics, environmental studies, and conservation psychology, and will further the reader's understanding of the role of human factors in ecological protection. It will also be of value to policy makers and the general reader interested in understanding behavioural and psychosocial perspectives on environmental concern.
China has witnessed a drop in the speed of its economic development from 14% to 6% since 2007. The literature has attributed “the miracle of China's economic growth” over the past four decades to the ...compatibility of political incentives and fiscal incentives. However, as the central government shifts its priorities from “development is the last word” to “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”, can local officials' political and financial incentives still achieve incentive compatibility? Theoretically and empirically, this paper examines the impact of the compatibility of political and financial incentives on local governments' environmental governance in different stages. We find that environmental performance has consistently been an important political promotion incentive for officials, especially after 2007. We also find that officials in cities with incentive compatibility have no promotion advantages over their opponents because incentive compatibility restrained the development of the manufacturing industry, leading to a suppression of the economic growth rate. Local governments sacrifice a certain economic growth rate – in other words, local fiscal revenue – in exchange for environmental quality improvements and adopt strategic actions to cater to the central government's new performance evaluation system, which focuses mainly on environmental protection assessment through strategic behavior.
•There are dynamic roles of compatibility between political and financial incentives.•An equilibrium model can capture the change in central and local governments.•The incentive compatibility phenomenon has no promotion advantage for local officials.•Environmental performance may be achieved at the expense of the economic growth rate.
Abstract
The article considers the current state of the environment in the Tyumen region. The author identifies the existing problems and suggests a number of promising measures aimed at improving ...and protecting the environment, which will ensure the further sustainable development of the region in this area.
Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are xenobiotics that mimic the interaction of natural hormones and alter synthesis, transport, or metabolic pathways. The prospect of EDCs causing adverse health ...effects in humans and wildlife has led to the development of scientific and regulatory approaches for evaluating bioactivity. This need is being addressed using high-throughput screening (HTS)
approaches and computational modeling.
In support of the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) led two worldwide consortiums to virtually screen chemicals for their potential estrogenic and androgenic activities. Here, we describe the Collaborative Modeling Project for Androgen Receptor Activity (CoMPARA) efforts, which follows the steps of the Collaborative Estrogen Receptor Activity Prediction Project (CERAPP).
The CoMPARA list of screened chemicals built on CERAPP's list of 32,464 chemicals to include additional chemicals of interest, as well as simulated ToxCast™ metabolites, totaling 55,450 chemical structures. Computational toxicology scientists from 25 international groups contributed 91 predictive models for binding, agonist, and antagonist activity predictions. Models were underpinned by a common training set of 1,746 chemicals compiled from a combined data set of 11 ToxCast™/Tox21 HTS
assays.
The resulting models were evaluated using curated literature data extracted from different sources. To overcome the limitations of single-model approaches, CoMPARA predictions were combined into consensus models that provided averaged predictive accuracy of approximately 80% for the evaluation set.
The strengths and limitations of the consensus predictions were discussed with example chemicals; then, the models were implemented into the free and open-source OPERA application to enable screening of new chemicals with a defined applicability domain and accuracy assessment. This implementation was used to screen the entire EPA DSSTox database of
chemicals, and their predicted AR activities have been made available on the EPA CompTox Chemicals dashboard and National Toxicology Program's Integrated Chemical Environment. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP5580.
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