Recent organic diet intervention studies suggest that diet is a significant source of pesticide exposure in young children. These studies have focused on children living in suburban communities. The objective of the study was to determine whether consuming an organic diet reduced urinary pesticide metabolite concentrations in 40 Mexican-American children, 3-6 years, living in California urban and agricultural communities.

The objective of this study was to analyze the changes and uncertainties related to water availability in the future (for purposes of this study, it was adopted the period
between 2011 and 2040), using a stochastic approach, taking as reference a climate 5 projection from the climate model Eta CPTEC/HadCM3. The study was applied to the
Ijuí river basin in the south of Brazil.

Importance of soil organic carbon (SOC) in maintaining soil productivity and natural ecosystem has been a major concern throughout the globe. SOC in the humid tropical climate becomes more important in view of undulating hilly terrain in the north eastern region of India. The major concern in such landscape is soil erosion and the necessary conservation practices. In the present study, we discuss the technique of pedometric mapping to link SOC and soil loss.

Original Source

Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer worldwide. Most indoor exposure occurs by diffusion of soil gas. Radon is also found in well water, natural gas and
ambient air. Pennsylvania has high indoor radon concentrations; buildings are often tested during real estate transactions with results reported to the Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP).

The optimal management of water resources requires that the collected hydrogeological, meteorological, and spatial data be simulated and analyzed with appropriate models. In this study, a catchment-scale distributed hydrological modeling approach is applied to simulate water stress for the years 2000 and 2050 in a data scarce Pra Basin, Ghana.

Original Source

Despite the potential of improved cookstoves to reduce the adverse environmental and health impacts of solid fuel use, their adoption and use remains low. Social marketing—with its focus on the marketing mix of promotion, product, price, and place—offers a useful way to understand household behaviors and design campaigns to change biomass fuel use. We report on a series of pilots across 3 Indian states that use different combinations of the marketing mix. We find sales varying from 0% to 60%.

In the last decade the African continent has been facing a number of incidences on rhino poaching and we may be heading to rhino extinction. A number of strategies have been tried and tested to protect the rhinos in Africa. However, rhinos killed by poaching are ever increasing. Based on previous strategies to protect rhinos very little has been achieved in combating rhino poaching. This study employed an exploratory research approach whereby literature search and case analysis are used to draw conclusions on the effectiveness of the current poaching techniques.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) is a policy instrument meant to mitigate climate change while also achieving poverty reduction in tropical countries. It has garnered critics for homogenising environmental and development governance and for ignoring how similar efforts have tended to exacerbate gender inequalities. Nonetheless, regarding such schemes as inevitable, some feminists argue for requirements that include women's empowerment and participation.

Using the case of Costa Rica, this paper examines how 'carbon' became an identifiable problem for that state. We trace how, during the 1980s, rationalities of financialisation and security arose in this country that allowed for Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) to emerge as an economic and political mechanism. Our central thesis is: this period initiated a government project of securing a viable future for the nation's resources by linking them to global financial markets and international trade.

Protected area governance has witnessed a shift from a strict-nature conservation model towards a seemingly more participatory approach in Nepal. Despite some progress, top-down and non-deliberative processes characterise policy making in protected area. However, many civil society actors have increasingly challenged the government to provide space for local people in decision making so that their rights to natural resources are considered.