Open Access Books - Technology - 2021
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PublicationGlobal Environment Outlook – GEO-6: Technical Summary( 2021)The sixth Global Environment Outlook was launched in 2019 at the fourth UN Environment Assembly. It highlighted the ongoing damage to life and health from pollution and land degradation, and warned that zoonosis was already accounting for more than 60% of human infectious diseases. Since then the spread of COVID-19 has demonstrated the enormous challenges a global pandemic can cause for health care systems and the economy, as well as revealing potential environmental benefits of an altered lifestyle. This Technical Summary synthesizes the science and data in the GEO-6 report to make it accessible to a broad audience of policymakers, students and scientists. It demonstrates that more urgent and sustained action is required to address the degradation caused by our energy, food and waste systems and identifies a variety of transformational pathways for those seeking far-reaching policies for environmental and economic recovery. Also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
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PublicationExpanded Sampling Across Ontogeny in Deltasuchus motherali (Neosuchia, Crocodyliformes): Revealing Ecomorphological Niche Partitioning and Appalachian Endemism in Cenomanian Crocodyliforms( 2021)New material attributable to Deltasuchus motherali, a neosuchian from the Cenomanian of Texas, provides sampling across much of the ontogeny of this species. Detailed descriptions provide information about the paleobiology of this species, particularly with regards to how growth and development affected diet. Overall snout shape became progressively wider and more robust with age, suggesting that dietary shifts from juvenile to adult were not only a matter of size change, but of functional performance as well. These newly described elements provide additional characters upon which to base more robust phylogenetic analyses. The authors provide a revised diagnosis of this species, describing the new material and discussing incidents of apparent ontogenetic variation across the sampled population. The results of the ensuing phylogenetic analyses both situate Deltasuchus within an endemic clade of Appalachian crocodyliforms, separate and diagnosable from goniopholidids and pholidosaurs, herein referred to as Paluxysuchidae.
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PublicationForest Governance: Hydra or Chloris ?( 2021)Many forest-related problems are considered relevant today. One might think of deforestation, illegal logging and biodiversity loss. Yet, many governance initiatives have been initiated to work on their solutions. This Element takes stock of these issues and initiatives by analysing different forest governance modes, shifts and norms, and by studying five cases (forest sector governance, forest legality, forest certification, forest conservation, participatory forest management). Special focus is on performance: are the many forest governance initiatives able to change established practices of forest decline (Chloris worldview) or are they doomed to fail (Hydra worldview)? The answer will be both, depending on geographies and local conditions. The analyses are guided by discursive institutionalism and philosophical pragmatism.
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PublicationThe Economisation of Climate Change: How the G20, the OECD and the IMF Address Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Climate Finance( 2021)The year 2019 saw the emergence of an unlikely duo consisting of the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde1 and broadcaster and environmentalist Sir David Attenborough. They discussed the relationship between nature and the economy in a panel session, a podcast and an article (Attenborough and Lagarde, 2019, Atttenborough and Lagarde, 2019). In the latter, they stated 'We must treat the natural world as we would the economic world ... This is something economists can appreciate - the importance of minimizing waste, taking advantage of efficiencies, and accurately reflecting costs in prices, including costs imposed on our entire shared resource, the environment'. Elsewhere the same year, Lagarde also stated the importance of nature and of the existential threat of climate change and called for carbon pricing and fossil fuel subsidy reform as solutions to the climate crisis (Lagarde and Gaspar, 2019). This was notable coming from the Managing Director of an international institution focused on economic issues and criticised for ignoring other issues than economic growth and stability. The statement highlighted a wider trend of climate change being addressed within institutions concerned with economic issues
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PublicationAdvanced Modeling with the MATLAB Reservoir Simulation Toolbox( 2021)Many leading experts contribute to this follow-up to An Introduction to Reservoir Simulation using MATLAB/GNU Octave : User Guide for the MATLAB Reservoir Simulation Toolbox (MRST). It introduces more advanced functionality that has been recently added to the open-source MRST software. It is however a self-contained introduction to a variety of modern numerical methods for simulating multiphase flow in porous media, with applications to geothermal energy, chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR), flow in fractured and unconventional reservoirs, and in the unsaturated zone. The reader will learn how to implement new models and algorithms in a robust, efficient manner. A large number of numerical examples are included, all fully equipped with code and data so that the reader can reproduce the results and use them as a starting point for their own work. Like the original textbook, this book will prove invaluable for researchers, professionals and advanced students using reservoir simulation methods