Stranded Assets: How Policy Uncertainty affects Capital, Growth, and the Environment

The paper considers stochastic environmental policy and its effects on the environment, portfolio composition, and economic growth. Capital accumulation causes pollution which is reduced by private green services and public abatement. The government subsidizes green services and taxes dirty capital albeit at a rate which may become random, causing unexpected capital write-offs. Tax jumps depend on natural degradation and environmental activism. We derive how uncertainty and political activism affect the risk premia for investors. We analyze the incentives for firms to increase the greenness of production in order to reduce political uncertainty. Stochastic taxation is shown to act as a substitute for green subsidies when uncertainty decreases in the ratio of green services to capital and agents use their green activities strategically. Tax uncertainty may trigger precautionary savings, causing additional growth and enhanced environmental deterioration.

Evaluation and Quantification of Anionic Surfactant in the Gomti River at Lucknow City, India

In this paper, an attempt has been made to check the level of surfactants particularly in drinking water, which can lead to toxicity in human body system. In this study, a total of 10 locations were selected to enumerate the concentration of surfactants and other physicochemical parameters with metals in the flowing water of river during pre-monsoon 2019. Analyzed result showed that the concentration of surfactants was significantly high and other parameters were also high. It was also found that river at the vicinity of town areas or midstream in the Lucknow city contained high amount of an anionic surfactants due to the nonpoint sources generated by human activities, low concentration was found in upstream, and average concentration was found in downstream, showing natural degradation of surfactants. The values of other parameters were higher than the prescribed limit, which is the serious problem for human being.

Forest Wood through the Eyes of a Cultural Conservator

If prehistoric and historical time were placed into the time span of the existence of our universe, then the act of archaeology could be defined as the act of digging up what was only buried yesterday. So, conservation is about preserving a moment that has just become past time, yet significant. It is a moment of human creativity and ingenuity. It is not strange that forest wood has become the material to convey such moments. Forest wood is a living, everlasting source growing without human intervention, within reach, easy to use and shape thinking both great and small. It does not have to be a wooden ship; it can be a mere piece of charcoal. For it is what surrounded humans in the past which archaeologists seek and use to weave human history, and what conservators bring back to context by reviving it. This work presents forest wood as an artefact and its preservation challenges as such. It touches on its natural degradation processes through burial, compromised properties and eventual conservation. Both dry and waterlogged wood are included. The overarching aim of this paper is to pay tribute, preserve and inspire the long-standing, open dialog and fruitful collaboration between cultural conservators and forest and wood scientists.

DETECTION OF STRUCTURAL PATHOLOGIES IN BUILDINGS USING ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAMMETRY

Environmental pollution and natural degradation of materials cause deterioration in buildings, initiating pathological processes that require conservation actions. Architectural Photogrammetry will be discussed as a tool to identify different pathologies on buildings and to accurately measure deflections. A photographic study was conducted of the most common deflections on reinforced concrete structures, with samples of different ages and locations exposed to various environments within Holguin Province in Cuba to detect deterioration characteristics, causes and possible treatments. A comparative analysis of other common methods and instruments currently used to measure structural pathologies highlights the efficiency of architectural photogrammetry. Photogrammetry is suitable to study the most common pathologies, their causes, and potential solutions. These include: cracks, fissures, deflection in beams, footing settlement, slenderness in columns, and more. In addition to the scope and efficiency of photogrammetry, this technology also facilitates studying inaccessible points on large elements. The instantaneous recording of accurate data about physical objects gives photogrammetry advantages over conventional structural analysis methods.

Ecological View From The Perspective of Quranic Verses

This research aims to know the relation between religion and environtment in a deep comprehensive understanding. How religion and environtment in some extents they are too related. In Islam for example, concept of shari’a seemingly agreed and supported the idea of nature and animal conservation. But, in some extent they are contradictive. This contradictive discouse could be seen from any kinds of texts of religious scriptures in how they deal with preservation of nature and animal (killing animal). The role of religious text we may say “yes” that it deal and closely related how the ecological views are constructed. How it overcomes the natural degradation, pollutions for instance. But, religion also should be understood as an orientation of the cosmos and how actually our human existence has an important role to the world. In broadest sense, we understand that religion also means of how people know the limits of reality and how humans interact with their own environment. Religion often talk about the cosmological stories, systems and symbols, ritual practices, norms and ethics, the history, and the institutional structure that transmits the view where human beings as an integral part in the world—and has a sense of responsibility towards nature. This article use the analytical approach in analyizing the issue of religion and environtment. Thus, the relation between Islamic law, Quranic verses and Shari’a are compactible in responding the issue of environtment

Methane in the atmosphere, methanotrophs and development of oil and gas industry

Dynamics of methane content alterations in the Earth's atmosphere in the conditions of globalization is analyzed and methane emission sources are estimated. Oil and gas industry is proved to be the most important anthropogenic source of atmospheric methane growth. Natural mechanisms of methane concentration regulation in the biosphere are considered. Particular attention is paid to the process of methane absorption by methanotrophic microorganisms and peculiarities of their functioning in extreme conditions. Methodology for reducing methane technogenic inflow into the atmosphere using methanotrophs is proposed. The book is addressed to oil and gas industry employees and everyone interested in the behavior of methane in the atmosphere, especially in connection with the atmospheric pollution and natural degradation of pollutants.