In recent decades, a large number of authors investigated whether income inequality level and climate change were compatible. However, the relationship between inequality level impact and consumption-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions was scarcely analysed. Thus, the objective of the present paper was to analyse the relationship between income inequality level and consumption-based GHG emissions from 1990 to 2014 under different stages of economic development. The results revealed a large gap between consumption-based GHG emissions at different economic development stages. Economic growth contributed to the growth of consumption-based GHG emissions in all income groups, and the largest effect was observed in middle-low- and low-income countries. Higher income inequality level was associated with lower negatively influenced consumption-based emissions in high- and middle-high-income countries, confirming the marginal propensity to emit and ‘Veblen effect’ theories. Meanwhile, regarding the middle-low- and low-income groups, the relationships between inequality level and GHG emissions were insignificant. Urbanisation level contributed to the growth of consumption-based GHG emissions in middle- and low-income countries. Education level contributed to the reduction of consumption-based GHG emissions in high-, middle-high-, and middle-low-income countries, and growth of emissions in low-income countries. Therefore, our analysis revealed that income inequality and climate change are still incompatible in all income groups, and we suggested how to achieve the reduction of income inequality and climate change simultaneously.

Within this study, we were interested in the effects of wastewater on the development of antimicrobial resistance. Microorganisms can relatively promptly adapt to evolutionary pressures of the environment, including antibiotics. Therefore, we tested how the adaptability of the model microorganism Salmonella enterica is affected by wastewater full of pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, and other micropollutants. Wastewater samples had been taken from effluent of hospitals and from wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) Petržalka influent and effluent. In these samples, presence of 38 substances was monitored. The highest concentration was observed in case of tramadol, citalopram, venlafaxine, cotinine, atenolol, valsartan, carbamazepine, azithromycin, and ciprofloxacin. According to this data, we focused also on individual pharmaceutical compounds presented in wastewater samples in elevated concentrations. Effect on resistance development of two pain relief medications (carbamazepine, tramadol), hypotensive medications (atenolol, valsartan), and the nicotine metabolite (cotinine) was also investigated. For this study, we employed concentrations presented in wastewater as well as in urine of patients and/or users. To determine the frequency of mutations leading to ciprofloxacin resistance, we applied the modified Ames test employing the strain Salmonella Typhimurium. Resistance index increased in the case of all wastewater samples from conventional hospitals where we observed a 1.22–1.69-fold increase of mutations leading to ciprofloxacin resistance. Tested compounds caused rise of resistance index in lower concentrations found in wastewater. The most significant increase of resistance index was detected after carbamazepine treatment.

Co-digestion samples containing thickened waste activated sludge and fat, oil and grease were subjected to three different pretreatment methods, i.e., microwave at 175 °C, hyper-thermophilic stage at 70 °C, and conventional heat at 70 °C. The soluble matter extracted from the un-pretreated and pretreated samples were subjected to an ultrafiltration (UF) process using four different membrane sizes (300, 100, 10, and 1 kDa) for molecular weight distribution analysis. Every pretreatment method had a different effect on the solubilization and redistribution of the soluble matter (SCOD and TVFA). For example while MW pretreatment resulted in a significant increase in the SCOD at the lowest molecular weight (< 1 kDa) and at the highest molecular weight (> 300 kDa), Hyper pretreatment caused the majority of the SCOD (̴ 62.7% of total SCOD) to be concentrated at the smaller molecular weight range (< 10 kDa). The MW and hyper-thermophilic pretreatments were much more effective in increasing samples solubilization and biogas production compared to the conventional heat pretreatment. The hyper-thermophilic samples had the maximum improvement in cumulative biogas production from all the molecular weights compared to MW- and Heat-pretreated samples; Hyper-pretreated samples achieved 86.5% higher cumulative biogas production compared to the control.

Study’s objective was to evaluate spatial variability of herbaceous cover species community in vineyards cultivated in soil with increasing Cu levels in Pampa biome. Three vineyards, with increasing soil Cu available contents and a natural field area (NF), were selected. In each experimental area, soil Cu content, botanical composition, cumulative aerial biomass, and aerial part Cu concentration, in most frequent species, were evaluated. In total, 39 vascular plant species were identified, including four exotic species. Biodiversity indicators did not significantly correlate with soil Cu. However, botanical composition variation could be observed. In NF, Poaceae and Asteraceae families presented greater dry mass contribution, while this contribution decreased in higher soil Cu concentration areas. The Cu concentration and accumulation in plant aerial part were higher in older vineyards, as plant aerial part accumulated, in average, 13.8 mg Cu m⁻². Among species found in experimental fields, Ageratum conyzoides, a species known to form Cu-tolerant populations, occurred in most areas, especially in vineyards, presenting higher aerial Cu concentrations, with a mean of 126.47 mg kg⁻¹. Soil enrichment with Cu did not alter the vegetation’s biodiversity, but may have contributed to the botanical composition modification. The native species, P. plicatulum and A. conyzoides, presented a high bio-accumulation factor and are potential candidates for phytoremediation techniques.

Water security is considered as one of the critical subjects that can arise from different issues, for instance, the injection of a poisonous pollutant into the drinking water system of a city followed by a terrorist attack. If the network lacks optimal operation to provide security against this threat, the whole population of the city can be affected by such an incident. This study aimed at preparing the optimal emergency response protocols by multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO). Furthermore, it calculates the risk of contaminants entering the network. The problem consists of three main objectives: 1) minimizing the number of operational interventions, 2) minimizing the number of polluted nodes, and 3) minimizing the number of exposed individuals. The location of closed valves and opened hydrants was chosen as decision variables. The proposed method is demonstrated using a benchmark and a real network.

This paper selects energy consumption data of 11 provinces in YRB and 19 provinces and cities in non-YRB from 2014 to 2016 and constructs a shared border Metafrontier non-radial directional short model, adding CO₂ and AQI indicators as undesirable factors, in order to evaluate the total efficiency and the input and output efficiencies of these two regions. The results are as follows. (1) From the changes in the score and ranking of the two regions’ total environmental efficiency, only two provinces in YRB show a slight decrease, while most of them show a stable or rising trend; seven provinces in non-YRB have a low rising rate. This means during the study period that YRB made more progress at energy conservation, emission reduction, and pollution control than other provinces and cities in non-YRB. (2) The efficiency scores of energy consumption, GDP, CO₂, and AQI emissions are different in each province. Overall, the situation of YRB is better than that of non-YRB. Not only is the efficiency score of each index higher, but the efficiency difference between provinces and cities within the region is small, which is conducive to the linkage effect of the region and the realization of green coordinated development.

As wastewater treatment systems that strengthen natural processes, constructed wetlands provide both ecosystem services and disservices. Manipulating both the physical and ecological structures of constructed wetlands has been the key to improve ecosystem services while reducing disservices. Herein, an experiment using simulated constructed wetlands was conducted to explore the effect of two different substrate sizes (fine sand or coarse sand), plant richness (1, 3, or 4 species), and plant species identity on ecosystem services. Results indicated that (1) only in microcosms with coarse sand, species richness enhanced nitrogen removal efficiency while reduced nitrous oxide emissions and that (2) the presence of Phalaris arundinacea increased nitrogen removal rate, and the presence of Rumex japonicus or Oenanthe javanica decreased nitrous oxide emissions; (3) however, the net ecosystem services (nitrogen removal, greenhouse gas emissions, biofuel production) of microcosms with fine sand were higher than those of microcosms with coarse sand, and (4) interestingly, there was no difference in net ecosystem services between microcosms with coarse sand (1033 yuan ha⁻¹ day⁻¹; 1 yuan ≈ 0.14 USD) and those with fine sand (1071 yuan ha⁻¹ day⁻¹) for the four-species mixtures. Hence, in practice, ensuring plant species richness with appropriate species in microcosms with coarse sand can improve ecosystem services to a level equal to that of microcosms with fine sand and help to prevent constructed wetlands from clogging.

This study aims to investigate the impact of different dimensions of globalization (i.e., overall globalization index, economic globalization index, social globalization index, and political globalization index) on environmental pollution by incorporating the real gross domestic product and energy consumption in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). In doing so, the annual period from 1995 to 2015 is examined with second-generation panel data methodologies to consider the possible cross-sectional dependence among observed countries. The findings show that increasing overall globalization, economic globalization, and social globalization increases the carbon emissions while increasing political globalization reduces the environmental pollution. In addition, it is also found that Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is confirmed.

Chlorine-based compounds have been used as a disinfectant in drinking water treatment plants for decades because of their excellent sterilisation efficiency and low cost. However, the formation of disinfection by-products during chlorination is a cause for concern. Peracetic acid (PAA) is a strong oxidant with a redox potential higher than that of chlorine and does not form harmful disinfection by-products. It is thus a potential alternative for chlorine-based disinfectants. However, PAA decomposes rapidly in water at a rate that is highly affected by many factors, such as organic compounds and pH. The aim of this study is to investigate the stability of PAA during drinking water disinfection. To accomplish this, we studied methods for rapid detection of residual PAA and PAA decay in drinking water. Residual PAA was detected in water by the spectrophotometry-total chlorine reagent (SPTCR) method with a PAA concentration range of 0.090–10 mg/L (R² = 0.9943). Decay tests of PAA in drinking water and other sources of water showed that the decay process conformed to the first-order kinetic model with fast and slow reactions. Among four factors, pH was the key factor in the decay process because an alkaline environment significantly promotes the decomposition of PAA. In addition, total organic carbon (TOC), conductivity, and initial PAA concentration also affected PAA decay. Experimental and statistical analyses suggested that these factors affected PAA decay in the following descending order of influence: TOC, initial PAA concentration, and conductivity. In real water matrices, the PAA decay rate increased with increasing initial PAA concentration.

Different veterinary drugs have been widely found in surface and groundwater, affecting non-target organisms. Ractopamine (RAC) is one of these drugs found in water bodies. It is a β-adrenergic agonist used as a feed additive to modulate the metabolism, redirect nutrients from the adipose tissue towards muscles, and increase protein synthesis in swine, cattle, and turkeys. RAC shows toxicological potential, but there is no data about its impacts on the development of non-target organisms, such as zebrafish (Danio rerio). In this study, we evaluated the effect of the exposure to this feed additive on critical parameters (hatching, survival, spontaneous movement, heart rate, and exploratory and locomotor behavior) in zebrafish embryos and larvae. The animals were exposed to RAC hydrochloride at 0.1, 0.2, 0.85, 8.5, and 85 μg/L. Zebrafish exposed to the drug showed increased heart rate at all tested concentrations and alterations on locomotion and exploratory behavior at 85 μg/L. No changes were observed in the survival, hatching rate and spontaneous movement. Our results suggest that RAC present in the environment can induce disabling effects on non-target organisms and elicit an ecological imbalance by increasing the animals’ vulnerability to predation due to greater visibility.