Selv efter libanesiske standarder har det seneste år været vildt. Et økono- misk kollaps, politisk krise, corona og en ødelæggende eksplosion i Beiruts havn. Mellemøstforsker Helle Malmvig skriver ...et personligt essay om året i Libanon, og hvordan humoren – trods alt – hjælper.
Afin de comprendre les raisons de la tension économique et financière au Liban et d'en explorer les issues possibles, il est nécessaire d'envisager les fonctions de l'intermédiation financière au ...Liban à la fois sous l'angle théorique, car elles présentent un cas extrême d'imbrication des risques bancaires, fiscaux et monétaires, et sous l'angle politique, car l'alternative entre leur reconfiguration et leur préservation s'impose comme un enjeu décisif. Au Liban, le système financier est intrinsèquement imbriqué au système politique, dont il est l'un des instruments essentiels. Sa « résilience » est le résultat d'une action politique longue qui tire avantage du défaut d'immunité de la société. Aujourd'hui, le Liban fait face à une crise majeure de la balance des paiements et vouloir occulter les pertes dans l'attente d'un miracle improbable ne fera que les aggraver et épuisera les derniers avoirs extérieurs. Il est donc nécessaire de procéder à une allocation des pertes et des risques qui soit à la fois socialement juste, et par suite politiquement justifiable, et économiquement orientée vers la restructuration de l'économie pour qu'elle ne soit plus structurellement dépendante des flux externes de capitaux. Classification JEL : F41, G21, O16, O53.
Food consumption and wastage behavior varies across cultures, which warrants investigations in various countries and locations of different income levels. To date, information on the attitudes and ...behaviors of households in developing countries regarding food waste is scarce. The objective of this study is to assess the household attitudes and behaviors that determine food waste in Lebanon for a better understanding and for tailoring community based interventions.
A questionnaire, composed of 3 sections and 27 questions, was developed to assess the attitudes and behaviors towards food waste in Lebanese households. A convenient sample of 1264 households from the five governorates of Lebanon was interviewed in 2016 and 2017. The variable “eat everything prepared” was used as a proxy for food waste. The effect of various socio-demographic and behavioral factors on household food waste generation across urban and rural areas in Lebanon was estimated by means of a Logistic regression, using STATA.
Socio-demographic variables such as employment, education, number of members in the household and income affected food waste volume. Behaviors such as eating out frequently and buying best offers were shown to increase food wastage. Also, beliefs such as feeling guilty decreased food waste generation. Rural households contributed less to food waste generation compared to urban areas.
Households contribute significantly to a country's food waste problem through their behavior and beliefs. Our findings showed that various household characteristics and food-related behaviors, attitudes toward recycling and other beliefs affected food waste generation in urban and rural communities of a developing country. Future research is still needed to better understand determinants of food waste at the household level in developing countries.
•Employment, education, no of household members and income affected food waste volume.•Practices such as eating out frequently and buying best offers were shown to increase food wastage.•Beliefs such as feeling guilty decreased food waste generation.•Rural households contribute less to food waste generation.
In this work, a review on solar cookers is presented. This review includes principle and classification, parameters influencing the performance of a solar cooker, and energy and exergy analysis ...related to solar cooker systems. Moreover, an economic study is performed for different scenarios in Lebanon (home, hotel, restaurant and snack) and for several categories of solar cookers (solar box cooker, solar panel cooker, parabolic solar cooker and evacuated tube solar cooker with thermal storage). The main idea of the economic study is to estimate the payback period in function of percentage of time Pr where solar cooker is utilized, for each solar cooker and in each scenario. It was obtained that the higher dependence on solar cooker decreases payback period. Besides, environmental analysis is implemented to compute the amount of reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in the different scenarios as percentage of time where solar cooker is used varies. It was shown that the reduction in amount of carbon dioxide raised from 6.05 to 60.55kg/month, 605.52 to 6055.2kg/month, 399.64 to 3996.43kg/month and from 90.82 to 908.28kg/month in home, restaurant, hotel and snack respectively when Pr increased from 0.1 to 1. Hence, utilizing a solar cooker diminishes carbon dioxide emissions in all scenarios where Pr has direct relationship with minimization of carbon dioxide emissions.
•A combined life cycle energy and cost analysis is conducted on an apartment building.•Embodied, operational and user-transport energy reduction measures are assessed.•Building operation and ...user-transport can yield the largest savings over 50years.•A sensitivity analysis reveals the significance of the discount and inflation rates.•Energy reduction guidelines are provided for actors of the built environment.
Few studies have evaluated the overall life cycle energy demand of residential buildings, including their embodied, operational and user-transport requirements. To our knowledge, none has quantified the life cycle cost associated with reducing each of the aforementioned energy demands. It is critical to evaluate both energy and financial requirements in order to provide effective energy saving solutions for actors of the built environment.
This study quantifies the life cycle energy and cost requirements associated with 22 different energy reduction measures targeting embodied, operational and user-transport requirements. It evaluates a case study apartment building in Sehaileh, Lebanon. Embodied, operational and transport energy requirements are calculated over 50years using a comprehensive approach. Life cycle costs are quantified using the net present value technique.
Results identify the most cost effective energy reduction measures and discard some others which are financially prohibitive, namely the installation of photovoltaic panels and the use of hybrid cars. A number of recommendations for building designers, occupants, urban designers and planners and decision makers are provided based on the quantified benefits of each measure. This demonstrates the need for assessments with a broad scope and their potential to inform energy reduction strategies in the built environment.
Rapid, accurate assessment of the yield of a large-scale urban explosion will assist in implementing emergency response plans, will facilitate better estimates of areas at risk of high damage and ...casualties, and will provide policy makers and the public with more accurate information about the event. On 4 August 2020, an explosion occurred in the Port of Beirut, Lebanon. Shortly afterwards, a number of videos were posted to social media showing the moment of detonation and propagation of the resulting blast wave. In this article, we present a method to rapidly calculate explosive yield based on analysis of 16 videos with a clear line-of-sight to the explosion. The time of arrival of the blast is estimated at 38 distinct positions, and the results are correlated with well-known empirical laws in order to estimate explosive yield. The best estimate and reasonable upper limit of the 2020 Beirut explosion determined from this method are 0.50 kt TNT and 1.12 kt TNT, respectively.
Climate change and environmental problems are of major concern to governments, organisations, and consumers. This stresses the need for a transition towards clean renewable energy systems. To enable ...the diffusion of cleaner energy technology it is not enough to just have supportive policies in place. The challenge is to ensure that consumers adopt them. This article integrates insights from different research traditions into a research model to analyse consumers’ adoption decision-making behaviour. The innovation-diffusion model by Rogers was used and hypotheses from environmental psychological models were later added. A survey was conducted among householders to assess the adoption of solar heating systems in the Metn neighbourhood in Lebanon (N = 200). The results revealed that adopters and non-adopters differ significantly according to socio-demographic factors, such as income and household size.
The study confirmed the significance of typical variables of the diffusion of innovation model, such as relative advantage, observability, independent judgment-making, and novelty-seeking; even when testing integrative analytical models. Furthermore, the results indicate that, by integrating hypotheses from environmental psychology models to the diffusion of innovation model, a reasonable fit was achieved which is higher than the value of each model tested separately. The results can be of use to policy makers. The article ends with suggestions for future research.
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•Origanum syriacum subp. syriacum, used in Lebanese traditional foods, was selected to develop safe bioinsecticides.•GC–MS showed that carvacrol was the essential oil (EO) major ...component.•Both the EO and carvacrol were toxic to M. persicae, S. littoralis and M. domestica.•No EO toxicity was noted on the non-target species H. axyridis and E. fetida.•O. syriacum EO is a good candidate ingredient for safe botanical insecticides.
Origanum syriacum subsp. syriacum, also known as ‘Za’tar’ is an aromatic shrub native to Lebanon and cultivated in other Middle East countries. The plant leaves enjoy a high reputation as a traditional remedy against cardiovascular, respiratory and infectious diseases. In addition, they are a famous component of the Lebanese pizza (“manoushe”). Starting from its safety for humans, here O. syriacum subsp. syriacum was selected to assess the insecticidal efficacy of its leaf essential oil (EO) and its major constituent carvacrol against two key agricultural pests, namely the noctuid Spodoptera littoralis and the aphid Myzus persicae, as well as on the fly pest Musca domestica. Furthermore, the Za’tar EO potential impact on beneficial organisms such as the aphid predator Harmonia axyridis and the earthworm Eisenia fetida, which is used in the vermicomposting process, was assessed. GC–MS analysis highlighted the phenolic monoterpene carvacrol as the predominant component (83%) of Za’tar EO. Toxicity of O. syriacum subsp. syriacum EO was noteworthy, showing LC50/LD50 of 103.3 μg larva−1, 2.1 mg L−1 and 58.7 μg adult−1 on S. littoralis, M. persicae and M. domestica, respectively, which were partly consistent with those of its major component carvacrol (38.3 μg larva-1, 1.6 mL L−1 and 59.3 μg adult-1, respectively). When tested up to 3.8 mL L−1 and 200 mg kg−1 on H. axyridis and E. fetida, this EO was not toxic, at variance with α-cypermethrin, which caused 100% mortality at 1 mL L−1 and 25 mg kg−1, respectively. Taken together, these results promote carvacrol-rich Za’tar EO as a promising reservoir of green insecticides to be used for managing insect pests and vectors of economic relevance.
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