Annual Review of Environment and Resources - Volume 32, 2007
Volume 32, 2007
- Preface
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Feedbacks of Terrestrial Ecosystems to Climate Change*
Vol. 32 (2007), pp. 1–29More LessMost modeling studies on terrestrial feedbacks to warming over the twenty-first century imply that the net feedbacks are negative—that changes in ecosystems, on the whole, resist warming, largely through ecosystem carbon storage. Although it is clear that potentially important mechanisms can lead to carbon storage, a number of less well-understood mechanisms, several of which are rarely or incompletely modeled, tend to diminish the negative feedbacks or lead to positive feedbacks. At high latitudes, negative feedbacks from forest expansion are likely to be largely or completely compensated by positive feedbacks from decreased albedo, increased carbon emissions from thawed permafrost, and increased wildfire. At low latitudes, negative feedbacks to warming will be decreased or eliminated, largely through direct human impacts. With modest warming, net feedbacks of terrestrial ecosystems to warming are likely to be negative in the tropics and positive at high latitudes. Larger amounts of warming will generally push the feedbacks toward the positive.
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Carbon and Climate System Coupling on Timescales from the Precambrian to the Anthropocene*
Vol. 32 (2007), pp. 31–66More LessOver a range of geological and historical timescales, warmer climate conditions are associated with higher atmospheric levels of CO2, an important climate-modulating greenhouse gas. Coupled carbon-climate interactions have the potential to introduce both stabilizing and destabilizing feedback loops into Earth's system. Here we bring together evidence on the dominant climate, biogeochemical and geological processes organized by timescale, spanning interannual to centennial climate variability, Holocene millennial variations and Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles, and million-year and longer variations over the Precambrian and Phanerozoic. Our focus is on characterizing, and where possible quantifying, internal coupled carbon-climate system dynamics and responses to external forcing from tectonics, orbital dynamics, catastrophic events, and anthropogenic fossil-fuel emissions. One emergent property is clear across timescales: atmospheric CO2 can increase quickly, but the return to lower levels through natural processes is much slower. The consequences of human carbon cycle perturbations will far outlive the emissions that caused them.
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The Nature and Value of Ecosystem Services: An Overview Highlighting Hydrologic Services
Vol. 32 (2007), pp. 67–98More LessEcosystem services, the benefits that people obtain from ecosystems, are a powerful lens through which to understand human relationships with the environment and to design environmental policy. The explicit inclusion of beneficiaries makes values intrinsic to ecosystem services; whether or not those values are monetized, the ecosystem services framework provides a way to assess trade-offs among alternative scenarios of resource use and land- and seascape change. We provide an overview of the ecosystem functions responsible for producing terrestrial hydrologic services and use this context to lay out a blueprint for a more general ecosystem service assessment. Other ecosystem services are addressed in our discussion of scale and trade-offs. We review valuation and policy tools useful for ecosystem service protection and provide several examples of land management using these tools. Throughout, we highlight avenues for research to advance the ecosystem services framework as an operational basis for policy decisions.
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Soils: A Contemporary Perspective
Vol. 32 (2007), pp. 99–129More LessSoils are viewed in the context of ecosystem services, soil processes and properties, and key attributes and constraints. The framework used is based on the premise that the natural capital of soils that underlies ecosystem services is primarily determined by three core soil properties: texture, mineralogy, and soil organic matter. Up-to-date descriptions and geographical distribution of soil orders as well as soil attributes and constraints are given, along with the relationships between soil orders, properties, and biomes. We then relate ecosystem services to specific soil processes, soil properties, and soil constraints and attributes. Soil degradation at present is not adequately assessed and quantified. The use of an approach combining digital soil maps, pedotransfer functions, remote sensing, spectral analysis, and soil inference systems is suggested for simultaneous characterization of various chemical, physical, and biological properties to overcome the great limitations and costs of conventional methods of soil assessments.
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Bioenergy and Sustainable Development?
Vol. 32 (2007), pp. 131–167More LessTraditional biomass remains the dominant contributor to the energy supply of a large number of developing countries, where it serves the household energy needs of over a third of humanity in traditional cookstoves or open fires. Efforts to reduce the enormous human health, socioeconomic, and environmental impacts by shifting to cleaner cookstoves and cleaner biomass-derived fuels have had some success, but much more needs to be done, possibly including the expanded use of fossil-derived fuels. Concurrently, biomass is rapidly expanding as a commercial energy source, especially for transport fuels. Bioenergy can positively contribute to climate goals and rural livelihoods; however, if not implemented carefully, it could exacerbate degradation of land, water bodies, and ecosystems; reduce food security; and increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For large-scale commercial biofuels to contribute to sustainable development will require agriculturally sustainable methods and markets that provide enhanced livelihood opportunities and equitable terms of trade. The challenge lies in translating the opportunity into reality.
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Models of Decision Making and Residential Energy Use
Vol. 32 (2007), pp. 169–203More LessResearch traditions across the social sciences have explored the drivers of individual behavior and proposed different models of decision making. Four diverse perspectives are reviewed here: conventional and behavioral economics, technology adoption theory and attitude-based decision making, social and environmental psychology, and sociology. The individual decision models in these traditions differ axiomatically. Some are founded on informed rationality or psychological variables, and others emphasize physical or contextual factors from individual to social scales. Each perspective suggests particular lessons for designing interventions to change behavior. Throughout the review, these lessons are applied to decisions affecting residential energy use. Examples are drawn from both intuitive and reasoning-based types of decision as well as from a range of decision contexts that include capital investments in weatherization and repetitive behaviors such as appliance use. Areas of difference and similarity between various theoretical approaches and their practical implications are highlighted. Conclusions are drawn on how to develop a more integrated approach to both behavioral research and intervention design in a residential energy context.
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Renewable Energy Futures: Targets, Scenarios, and Pathways
Vol. 32 (2007), pp. 205–239More LessScenarios for the future of renewable energy through 2050 are reviewed to explore how much renewable energy is considered possible or desirable and to inform policymaking. Existing policy targets for 2010 and 2020 are also reviewed for comparison. Common indicators are shares of primary energy, electricity, heat, and transport fuels from renewables. Global, Europe-wide, and country-specific scenarios show 10% to 50% shares of primary energy from renewables by 2050. By 2020, many targets and scenarios show 20% to 35% share of electricity from renewables, increasing to the range 50% to 80% by 2050 under the highest scenarios. Carbon-constrained scenarios for stabilization of emissions or atmospheric concentration depict trade-offs between renewables, nuclear power, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) from coal, most with high energy efficiency. Scenario outcomes differ depending on degree of future policy action, fuel prices, carbon prices, technology cost reductions, and aggregate energy demand, with resource constraints mainly for biomass and biofuels.
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Shared Waters: Conflict and Cooperation
Vol. 32 (2007), pp. 241–269More LessThis review examines the state of conflict and cooperation over transboundary water resources from an environmental, political, and human development perspective. Although the potential for outright war between countries over water is low, cooperation is often missing in disputes over transboundary resources. This background chapter will
▪ Provide a brief overview of the nature of conflict and experiences of cooperation over transboundary resources.
▪ Provide a conceptual basis for understanding cooperation and the costs of noncooperation over water.
▪ Indicate the possible triggers for conflict over water sharing and the implications on the livelihoods of ordinary communities.
▪ Offer evidence on the potential costs of noncooperation or even conflict over water resources.
▪ Analyze power asymmetries between riparian states and how they affect the outcomes of negotiations.
▪ Analyze different examples of cases that countries have used to manage the competition for water resources.
▪ Propose general principles and conclusions on conflict and cooperation.
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The Role of Livestock Production in Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles
Vol. 32 (2007), pp. 271–294More LessThis review looks at the role of the livestock sector in carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles from a global perspective and considers impacts at the various stages of the commodity chain. With regard to livestock, N and C cycles are closely connected to livestock's role in land use and land-use change. Livestock's land use includes grazing land and cropland dedicated to the production of feed crops and fodder. Considering emissions along the entire commodity chain, livestock currently contribute about 18% to the global warming effect. Livestock contribute about 9% of total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, but 37% of methane (CH4), and 65% of nitrous oxide (N2O). The latter will substantially increase over the coming decades, as the pasture land is currently at maximum expanse in most regions; future expansion of the livestock sector will increasingly be crop based. The chapter also reviews mitigation options to reduce C and N emissions from livestock's land use, production, and animal waste.
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Global Environmental Standards for Industry
Vol. 32 (2007), pp. 295–316More LessGlobal environmental standards are emerging as an increasingly important influence on the environmental performance of industry. In this chapter, we develop a new definition and a categorization of global environmental standards that reflect the different agents involved in their development and the particular network architecture through which environmental standards achieve global reach. We examine new forms of global environmental standards, such as firm-based standards and standards initiated by third-party organizations, such as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and industry associations. The growing interest in global environmental standards is shown to arise from processes of economic globalization as well as from increasing external pressure on firms and industries with respect to environmental concerns. The chapter reviews what is known about the prevalence of different types of global environmental standards and the efficacy of these standards in influencing the environmental performance of firms and industries.
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Industry, Environmental Policy, and Environmental Outcomes
Vol. 32 (2007), pp. 317–344More LessThis chapter reviews recent literature assessing the impacts of regulatory policies on the environmental performance of manufacturing firms. After showing substantial industry and national variation in resource consumption and pollution impacts, the review examines the role environmental policy instruments play in changing industry's burdens on the environment. Policies clearly shape industrial impacts, although the effect seems to be diminishing. Moving to uncouple economic and environmental performance, the review examines how regulations affect competitiveness, innovation, and capital flight. Similarly, corporate environmental voluntarism promises—and sometimes delivers—improved environmental performance; however, meaningful indicators are still few and far between. The article concludes with a call for research that further explains why some sectors perform better than others, and what lessons policy makers can draw upon, especially to move firms toward the best performance that is technologically possible and environmentally sustainable.
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Population and Environment
Vol. 32 (2007), pp. 345–373More LessThe interactions between human population dynamics and the environment have often been viewed mechanistically. This review elucidates the complexities and contextual specificities of population-environment relationships in a number of domains. It explores the ways in which demographers and other social scientists have sought to understand the relationships among a full range of population dynamics (e.g., population size, growth, density, age and sex composition, migration, urbanization, vital rates) and environmental changes. The chapter briefly reviews a number of the theories for understanding population and the environment and then proceeds to provide a state-of-the-art review of studies that have examined population dynamics and their relationship to five environmental issue areas. The review concludes by relating population-environment research to emerging work on human-environment systems.
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Carbon Trading: A Review of the Kyoto Mechanisms
Vol. 32 (2007), pp. 375–393More LessThe three Kyoto flexible mechanisms—emissions trading, the clean development mechanism (CDM), and Joint Implementation (JI)—have always been controversial. Proponents saw the mechanisms as clever tools to ensure environmental outcomes were achieved at least cost. Reducing the costs of compliance, they argued, would make tighter environmental targets possible, and certainly more politically feasible. Detractors have argued that the flexible mechanisms commoditize Earth's atmosphere in a manner that will allow dubious projects and the exchange of “hot air” to substitute for serious engagement on climate change. This chapter reviews the Kyoto flexible mechanisms, which will become fully operative during the period 2008 to 2012. The review assesses their progress and success to date, examines the problems that have emerged, and considers suggestions for future developments in climate policy.
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Adaptation to Environmental Change: Contributions of a Resilience Framework
Vol. 32 (2007), pp. 395–419More LessAdaptation is a process of deliberate change in anticipation of or in reaction to external stimuli and stress. The dominant research tradition on adaptation to environmental change primarily takes an actor-centered view, focusing on the agency of social actors to respond to specific environmental stimuli and emphasizing the reduction of vulnerabilities. The resilience approach is systems orientated, takes a more dynamic view, and sees adaptive capacity as a core feature of resilient social-ecological systems. The two approaches converge in identifying necessary components of adaptation. We argue that resilience provides a useful framework to analyze adaptation processes and to identify appropriate policy responses. We distinguish between incremental adjustments and transformative action and demonstrate that the sources of resilience for taking adaptive action are common across scales. These are the inherent system characteristics that absorb perturbations without losing function, networks and social capital that allow autonomous action, and resources that promote institutional learning.
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Women, Water, and Development
Vol. 32 (2007), pp. 421–449More LessThat women play a central role in the provision, management, and safeguarding of water is one of the four internationally accepted principles of water management. This principle is especially important for the developing world where millions of women lack access to water for their basic needs. The objectives of this chapter are to summarize what is known about women with respect to water and about water with respect to women as well as to provide a sense of the current debates around these themes. A review of the literature suggests that the lack of gender-disaggregated data on the impacts of water policies, and underlying disagreements on how gender and development should be theorized, makes it difficult to reach robust conclusions on which policies can best assure poor women reliable access to water for their lives and livelihoods.
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Previous Volumes
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Volume 49 (2024)
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Volume 48 (2023)
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Volume 47 (2022)
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Volume 46 (2021)
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Volume 45 (2020)
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Volume 44 (2019)
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Volume 43 (2018)
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Volume 42 (2017)
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Volume 41 (2016)
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Volume 40 (2015)
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Volume 39 (2014)
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Volume 38 (2013)
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Volume 37 (2012)
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Volume 36 (2011)
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Volume 35 (2010)
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Volume 34 (2009)
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Volume 33 (2008)
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Volume 32 (2007)
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Volume 31 (2006)
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Volume 30 (2005)
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Volume 29 (2004)
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Volume 28 (2003)
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Volume 27 (2002)
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Volume 26 (2001)
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Volume 25 (2000)
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Volume 24 (1999)
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Volume 23 (1998)
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Volume 22 (1997)
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Volume 21 (1996)
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Volume 20 (1995)
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Volume 19 (1994)
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Volume 18 (1993)
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Volume 17 (1992)
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Volume 16 (1991)
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Volume 15 (1990)
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Volume 14 (1989)
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Volume 13 (1988)
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Volume 12 (1987)
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Volume 11 (1986)
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Volume 10 (1985)
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Volume 9 (1984)
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Volume 8 (1983)
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Volume 7 (1982)
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Volume 6 (1981)
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Volume 5 (1980)
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Volume 4 (1979)
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Volume 3 (1978)
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Volume 2 (1977)
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Volume 1 (1976)
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Volume 0 (1932)